


Yachi Effect!

by Kokumastories



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Cute Yachi Hitoka, Drama, F/M, Family, Fluff, Gen, High School, Mention of Death, Multi, Multiple Endings, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Yachi Hitoka as y/n, Yachi Hitoka-centric, Yachi is adorable and cute and she is perfect female lead imo, Yachi is the best y/n in sports anime ever, Youth, friendships, sports anime, the plot is kind of slow but I hope you stay with me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 68,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kokumastories/pseuds/Kokumastories
Summary: Yachi Hitoka is the embodiment of the stars along with everything that is cute and people around her can’t just stop falling for her charms because she is just Yachi.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Yachi Hitoka, Bokuto Koutarou/Yachi Hitoka, Hinata Shouyou/Yachi Hitoka, Iwaizumi Hajime/Yachi Hitoka, Kageyama Tobio/Yachi Hitoka, Kozume Kenma/Yachi Hitoka, Kuroo Tetsurou/Yachi Hitoka, Oikawa Tooru/Yachi Hitoka, Terushima Yuuji/Yachi Hitoka, Ushijima Wakatoshi/Yachi Hitoka, Yachi Hitoka/Everyone, Yachi Hitoka/Karasuno Volleyball Club
Comments: 371
Kudos: 611





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's been a while since I post any fanfic related content but I'm on sports anime binge and I've always wanted to write a fanfic on Haikyuu. I know there has been a craze on how y/n starts to get really popular these days but I feel like I'm having so much trouble in writing on a relatable y/n or SI story but I was like "But Yachi's is sort of the perfect y/n in Haikyuu universe after all" and discard everything else and made Yachi Hitoka fanfic instead. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading my story because I wrote this story close to my heart since Yachi is my precious child :D

Yachi never thought about joining a club seriously when she entered high school. Her first week of school was not as good as she thought it would be because it was just that nerve-wrecking. She had a difficult time making new friends with her classmates because she finds her awkward approach and overthinking brain overdrives her before she could fully say a proper sentence out of her mouth without embarrassing herself.

It was quite a difficult first week of high school.

Although entering her second week went a little better than she thought because her mom bought her a new set of highlighters and colored pens which Yachi happily used them for her note-taking in classes and now she had fun in writing her notes in neat and cute styles at school. Surprisingly her note-taking skills got noticed by her nearby seatmates and this marked the start of new bond of friendships with her classmates ever since.

Afterwards Yachi didn’t feel like her school days were a burden anymore and she was looking forward to the days she goes to school and meet her friends. Although she had a bumpy start in the beginning, Yachi thinks she can do well and maintain her peaceful days for the remaining year.

-

“Club?”

Yachi sipped her apple juice while she bit on the edge of her straw. She just finished her lunch box and her seatmate asked her whether she was joining any clubs from the school.

“Yes, I was wondering whether you join any clubs. It’s already a few months after we entered first year but I really don’t know if you’re in any club.” Mikoto says, sipping her juice box until it was empty. She looked back to the blonde haired girl and tilted her head “So are you in any club, Yacchan?”

Yachi shook her head. “No, I’m not in any clubs. To be honest I’m not interested in joining one too. I don’t feel like I can fit into any of the clubs available at school.”

“Eh? But you’re like really skilled with art stuff, I was a little surprised that you’re not in art club.”

Yachi shook her head once more, feeling a little bit flustered. “I’m not really skilled though. Drawing is just a hobby of mine so I’m not sure if I can fit into the art club easily. Besides I help my mom sometimes so I don’t feel like joining any clubs at school for extra work.”

“Ah, you did tell me that your mom works in a design firm.” Mikoto hums before she looked straight to Yachi again and asked. “Are you really not interested in joining any clubs?”

Somehow this question made Yachi feels flustered all over again. Thinking of joining a club where she has to meet new people and re-doing the steps of trying to bond with strangers again made her feel a little queasy. “It-it’s just – I don’t feel like I’d be able to fit anywhere. I don’t really know whether I can do well or not so…I just don’t join any.”

Mikoto nodded. “Well, that’s fine. I won’t force you to it then.”

“Eh?” Yachi perked up, confused by her friend’s previous statement.

Mikoto crumbled her empty juice box in her hand. “There was a short guy from another class asking around whether there is anyone interested in joining his club. Didn’t remember which club though.”

Yachi lowered her upper body and laid her head onto her leaning hand on her desk. “It was that, huh?” She understood now why Mikoto asked her whether she was in a club or not.

Yachi was glad that Karasuno high school didn’t implement a mandatory rule where every student must join a school club. Her previous middle school enforced that rule and she reluctantly joined the art club. Even though she made friends in the club, she didn’t feel particularly active as a member of the art club either. So she decided that she won’t join any clubs yet when she entered high school.

As Mikoto gradually changes the topic of their conversation, Yachi’s mind didn’t wander to the issue of joining school clubs again. Though she feels idly curious at times when she meets her friends who were particularly active and excited in attending their own school clubs – with them sharing stories of their experiences and funny moments, but in the end Yachi didn’t particularly show any interest or thought about joining any clubs at the moment.

-

She was often the last one to tidy up afterschool whenever she is on class duty. While the remaining of her classmate who were on duty already cleaned up their spots and threw the trash bags away, Yachi was always the last one to make sure the class was in perfect shape before she leaves. She tidies up the chairs and desks again, made sure that the podium for the teacher was neatly arranged in the front center of the chalkboard, and closed all the windows before she leaves the empty classroom.

Nodding to herself as she sees her class was finally spotless after the cleaning session, Yachi went over to her desk, which was placed near the window, and grabbed her bag. While she wears her bag on her shoulders, she hears a loud yell of laughter from the window as she looked down from her spot.

She sees a group of boys dressed in somewhat sports clothes running a hurried pace as they all run around the baseball field together. Yachi’s own lips quirked into a small smile.

‘It must be nice…having something fun to do together’ her mind wonders before shaking her head. What was she thinking? Wasn’t she scared of joining a club at school earlier?

Hurrying her pace, she ignored the sound of joyful laughter from the group of boys that was running around the baseball field from before, she was guessing that it was perhaps one of the sports club having their practice, and went out of the classroom.

As she walks through the hallways, she only now realized that it was already quite late and that she was spending a little too long at the cleanup session earlier. Usually it didn’t take more than an hour to clean up the class but somehow she ended up doing it longer than she had expected. She has to hurry up now because she remembered that she promised her mom that she will make delicious chicken curry dinner tonight when she gets home.

As Yachi walks through the hallways, she passed by the music room on the second floor while she walks to the stairs. The music room was placed right near the stairs so she was able to hear the voices of the people singing in a melodious harmonic tune that was quite nice to hear. Yachi slowed down her pace and catch a glimpse of who were practicing and found out through the small window of the door that it was the choir club.

She had seen the choir club performing before in one of the school assemblies as well as during the pep rally. She might not be well-versed in musical department but she knew that they were quite good. And now she was able to witness the moments of the school choir doing their best in their practice session too afterschool, she suddenly felt in awe all of the sudden.

‘That must be nice…working hard together with friends to perform together’ Her mind wonders again. Yachi hurried down the stairs and was eager to get out of the school building.

She never thought about joining school clubs before but why did it bother her a little when she looks at other people in clubs. Yachi was confused.

-

Perhaps the early signs of her wondering thoughts was a mark of something life-changing. One that she wasn’t really aware of it too.

During one of her school breaks as she was walking through the hallways to her class, she was suddenly called by someone who she had never met before. Yachi was surprised when she turned around to see who had called her.

“Hello, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Yachi felt like her jaw was dropping to the ground but she kept the silly facial movement away and looked expectantly at the beautiful tall girl with glasses who just called her out of nowhere. Who was she? Yachi didn’t think she had seen the other taller girl before? She was beginning to feel nervous at this sudden call.

“Y-yes? Can I help you?” She replied, unsure whether she should say anything else.

The beautiful girl smiled (Yachi swore she felt her heart skipped a beat in her chest) as the taller girl handed a paper towards Yachi. “My name is Shimizu Kiyoko and I’m a third year. I’m currently a manager in the boys’ volleyball team.”

Yachi robotically accepts the paper in her hands and continued to stare. Yachi was pretty sure that she was starting to zone out as she looked at the black haired beauty in front of her. Yachi wasn’t sure if she heard the other girl correctly but she hears that she was a third year manager and is currently recruiting any first years who isn’t in any club.

The situation fits Yachi perfectly somehow as she is not in any clubs and also doesn’t have any other extra jobs that she had to currently pay attention to but she wasn’t also particularly interested in joining any club but right now so she can’t think straight when she suddenly met the third year manager who was really pretty and is saying things that Yachi probably needs to listen properly.

‘Woah, she is so pretty…so she is a third year…so pretty. Also she also has a beauty mark which makes her sexy… and her hair is so smooth and silky…pretty…ah the others are looking at her too’ Yachi’s mind wonders as she stares at the third year numbly.

“…so, why don’t we try a trial membership?” the pretty senpai says, looking back to Yachi again with a smile.

Yachi didn’t really pay close attention to what the older girl was saying because she was too busy staring in shock, but somehow Yachi managed to get it all together and reply.

“Huh? Y-yes.” She choked out.

The third year’s face brightened as she suddenly leaned in forward and grabbed Yachi’s hands and shake them. “Really? Thank you so much! Then, I’ll pick you up to meet the team after school!”

Yachi froze, processing what just happened a few seconds ago and finally went back to reality when she realized what she replied just then. Somehow she answered to the third year that she was okay in trying out a membership for the boys’ volleyball team as a manager.

'Why did she do it?! Stupid, why did you say that?!' Yachi grimaced at her own miss. 

Yachi felt like ripping her hair out of her head in frustration.

-

As Yachi was zoning out the rest of the lessons in that day, she didn’t realize that time was passing by so fast that it was already the end of the day. Her friends were quite busy with their own schedules after school so they were quick in leaving her alone after they packed all of their things.

Yachi felt a nervous from meeting Kiyoko-senpai. The third year beauty said that she will pick her up to meet the team and Yachi was constantly thinking about how she’ll be able to do it properly.

‘Manager, huh…I don’t really know how to manage things especially for a sports team.’ Yachi thought nervously as she packs all of her books in the bag numbly.

“Yachi-san, there’s a third year who says that she’s looking for you.” A classmate called her from the door and Yachi somehow flinched at their words.

‘She’s here!’ Yachi screamed in her mind before she takes her bag and hurried to the class’ door. And there she was, Kiyoko-senpai waiting for her patiently with a small smile as Yachi walks nervously towards her.

“S-sorry for the wait, senpai.” Yachi apologizes and bows repeatedly.

Instead of dismissing her, Kiyoko-senpai gave a small smile instead. “Don’t worry. Let’s go to the gym and meet the team right away.”

“Un.” Yachi nodded and followed the third year right through the hallways. Yachi felt a little bit pressured by the eyes staring at them as she walks beside Kiyoko-senpai. Since this was the hallway where the first year classes were, there were many students watching them as they were walking by.

Yachi does understand that Kiyoko-senpai is quite the beauty but Yachi feels intimidated by the eyes that were staring at them. ‘I really hope none of her fans would kill me for walking next to her.’ Yachi thought mindlessly.

Kiyoko looked down to Yachi and chuckles, “Don’t be too nervous. The people at the team are really nice and you don’t have to force yourself to do anything yet.”

“Yes, senpai.”

“Do you have anything else to do after school today?”

‘Oh, now that she mentions it…’ Yachi thought, “I had to give some printouts for committee duties but I can do that after this. I- I’m sorry for not mentioning it to you earlier.” Yachi bows again but Kiyoko waves her hand.

“It’s okay. Today we’ll just have a try out so you’ll know our team faces and what we’re like in practice. Later on you can join our practices and see what we really do and I will show you the ropes on how to manage and support the team.”

As Kiyoko explained the general ideas and rules for being a manager of volleyball team, Yachi began to understand that it will not be a simple task to help the team but also an important one. Kiyoko also mentioned how it has been a little challenging to find a first year who wants to participate the short try out for managerial position at the boys’ volleyball club. Since she was a third year, she did not have much time left and needed few extra hands to make sure the team do well in the future.

Yachi was very impressed by the passion and generosity that Kiyoko-senpai has shown her and somehow Yachi couldn’t help but be drawn by the older girl’s reasoning. Besides she also has been curios lately about joining school clubs, so this might be a small chance for her.

“I – I haven’t been in any club from the start of the year so I’m not really sure whether I can join the club officially as a manager but I’ll…I’ll give it a try.”

Kiyoko-smiled brighter. “Thank you. It’s very reassuring to hear that. Ah, we’re almost there.”

Yachi slowed down as Kiyoko came in to walk her way towards the smaller gym at the side of the school building. Even from the distance, Yachi could hear the shouts and yells of boys’ voices coming out from the gym and loud sounds of balls smacking against the floor were quite clear from the distance she was walking.

Yachi felt her stomach was getting colder as she walks closer.


	2. Chapter 2

Yachi numbly follows Kiyoko-senpai as they take off their shoes before the older girl slides the gym door open and called out. “Excuse me, can I have a moment.”

Suddenly there were boys looking at the manager’s way and they stopped all of their movements together before heading towards her. Yachi felt her nervousness spilling all over her body so she resides by hiding behind the black haired girl.

There were too many people in front of her and she was feeling a little lightheaded because they were suddenly looking at her way. She briefly caught several colored hair and the orange-haired colored boy suddenly exclaimed loudly when he landed his gaze on her.

“You found a new member!”

Yachi was already shaking in nervousness. Hiding behind Kiyoko-senpai wasn’t much of a good strategy in the end. Yachi timidly walks beside the third year manager and looked up nervously at the team members crowding around her.

“She’s here to try out as our new manager.” Kiyoko-senpai smiled back to Yachi.

It was time to introduce herself. “I’m Ya-Yachi Hitoka.” With a quivering and loud voice, she introduces herself.

Several members then responded to her introduction.

“Woah.”

“Really? That’s amazing!”

“I knew it that you could find one, Shimizu-senpai!”

Yachi felt a little warmth of butterflies filling from the coldness of her stomach. The floaty-like feelings were suddenly growing in the midst of moments like this, Yachi felt a little bit confused but flustered as well. She wasn’t used to having so much attention on her for a long time yet their expressions and warmth seem to make her feel welcomed at the gym.

Suddenly, a tall guy with long hair and gloomy beard-chin leaned down to her, “Are you a first year?” asking her in such surprisingly scary expression.

Yachi shrieked in terror and replied instantly. “I’m in class 5, s-sir!”

“Asahi, you’re too close.” Another guy with broad shoulder pushed him slightly away from Yachi’s space however it seemed that this retort made the beard-nii-chan hurt by the reaction.

The strangeness didn’t stop there because Yachi felt pairs of intense eyes staring at her when she looked to the other side and saw two people staring intensely at her with such eyes, making her tremble all over again.

A shaved-head tall boy with intense looking eyes and another shorter boy with spiky hair stood behind a gentle looking grey haired boy. However, their gaze was abruptly cut by the gentle looking boy that slaps their gaze away from her way when he noticed that she looked uncomfortable.

“Hey! Don’t stare at her like that, it’s rude.”

Yachi felt a flustered, confused and overall anxious. In this short introduction she had never felt so many things at once it was starting to overwhelm her.

“This is great, there will be a manager to support you all next year too.” The beard-nii-chan spoke again, this time surprisingly with much gentler tone than earlier. However, this remark made her a little jumpy and slightly burdened because Yachi have not decided yet whether she joins the team or not.

Yet Kiyoko-senpai came to the rescue. “She’s still on a try out besides I suddenly invited her today, she’ll be leaving for her committee duties. She’s here to say hello.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Yachi bows properly this time to greet them.

“Nice to meet you!” The sudden loud yell from the entire team replied instantly, making Yachi jumped from the sudden loud response.

“She’s still not used to us so please don’t crowd her too often.” Kiyoko-senpai spoke again.

Since Yachi already made an introduction and there was nothing left to do, Kiyoko-senpai tells her that there will be a practice tomorrow right after school so she can participate as manager candidate and made sure she wears her P.E uniform so she’ll be comfortable.

“I understand. I will see you tomorrow, please excuse me.” Yachi bid her farewell before closing the gym door again.

She instantly let out a huge breath and clutched to her chest. “So scary…” She wears her shoes and walks back to the school building for her committee duties.

“I went there on an impulse. The guys over there were huge too. What am I going to do tomorrow?”

-

The next day’s weather seemed to reflect with Yachi’s feelings. The sky was gloomy from the early morning and the rain seemed to keep pouring down even towards the lunch time. After knowing that she had to meet the volleyball team after school for a try out, she was all more nervous and anxious for what will happen in the later day.

Although Yachi was a bit clueless on managing a team, a quick research on the internet tells her that a manager must support the team directly in working towards their best performance in the games. They also required to work closely with the coaches to understand how each athlete perform.

‘It all sounds simple but I never work closely with anyone before on a daily basis. Besides classwork and assignments, would I be able to make it through the team with my personality like this?’ Yachi wonders that question throughout the entire night.

Which is perhaps why the due day for the tryout of the volleyball practice as a candidate manager, Yachi was feeling underwhelmed and restless. The sun was not visible through the dark clouds and she kept feeling tired.

‘What should I do after school?’ She sips on her banana juice mindlessly.

“Yachi-san!”

She jumps at the new voice calling for her from a distance. She looks towards the door where she sees familiar looking boys that she met from the previous day. The orange-haired boy waved at her with a bright smile from the door as the taller boy merely gave a small polite bow as they entered the classroom with ease while walking towards her.

In this second, Yachi’s entire brain panicked.

‘The boys from the volleyball team?! What do I do? What were their names?!’ Yachi’s train of questions starts running in her mind and she lightly gapes at the horror that she didn’t even know their names from the previous day introduction.

Her palms started sweating and she could feel her heart banging against her chest. The dread started to fill inside her stomach.

‘Have they introduced themselves? How can I forget the people I just met yesterday?!’ Yachi’s panics continues. Inside her brain, she envisions herself as being a failure for not being able to remember people’s names properly. Although it might seem like an exaggeration, this mental mindscape made her froze completely over this trivial matter.

“Hi! I’m Hinata from class 1.” The orange-colored boy introduced himself as Hinata before he points to the grumpy looking taller boy next to him. “His name is Kageyama.”

“Hello.” Kageyama greeted.

‘Eh, am I saved?’ Yachi wonders before she responds back to his greeting.

“Yachi-san, do you like studying?” Hinata asked.

It was a sudden and abrupt question that Yachi didn’t expect. Still, this was their first personal meeting and Yachi didn’t really know why they were here to meet her in the first place. She lets herself calm down and answered him.

“I don’t hate it but…”

Hinata then showed his notebook towards her. “Can you teach us, English?” He asked, then he turns to Kageyama again. “Kageyama, you ask her too.”

Kageyama bowed slightly again. “Please tutor us.”

“If we fail the final exam we won’t be able to make it to away games in Tokyo. We even went to Tsukishima, the glasses guy, for help but...Kageyama and I are so stupid that it sorts of pisses him off.” Hinata pleaded.

“I’m not afraid of him.” Kageyama grumbly spoke out.

Hinata hissed towards Kageyama’s words. “Wouldn’t it be better to have someone to teach us nicely?”

Yachi perked up at their conversation. ‘So they went over to me to help them study?’ That was fine for her, even for Yachi’s standards. She wouldn’t mind helping others with their studies. “If you don’t mind me teaching you – “

“Really?” Hinata perked up happily.

Yachi nodded however her eyes furrowed worriedly. “Though I can’t guarantee you that I’ll teach you nicer than glasses-san.”

Both Hinata and Kageyama shook their heads, “Don’t worry about that part.”

Afterwards Hinata and Kageyama took their own chairs to sit around Yachi’s table as she took out her English notes. Upon taking their seats, Yachi then realized that this was the first time she sat close to any boys in her school here. Kageyama seemed really tall that he even towers over her when he sits down next to her. Meanwhile Hinata took his own seat right in front of her as she laid down his own notebook on her desk.

Yachi tries to shake away the nervousness of sitting down closely next to these boys so she settles it with asking what problems they were having issues on and helped them explain them thoroughly with her own notes.

Hinata beamed at the colorful pages of Yachi’s notebooks and Kageyama listened attentively while he copies down Yachi’s notes in his own book. Hinata was so impressed by Yachi’s notes that his entire face beamed up with such gleeful expression which made Yachi’s heart skips a little faster than usual. Yachi continues to ignore her skipping heart by explaining some of the exercises that they could follow.

“Your notes are so easy to read and you draw really well.” Hinata complimented.

“My mom works at a design firm so she’s always been picky about things like this. Oh, if you leave a space here, it’ll be easier to fill in later.” Yachi unconsciously took her own pencil and made several marks on Hinata’s notes, “Also if you limit the numbers of colors you use, it won’t get confusing…and then – ah!”

It was at this moment she realized that she was practically writing on Hinata’s notes all over without permission. “I’m sorry! I’m writing all over your notebook.”

Instead of being angry in response, Hinata looked down to his notes with his hands and beamed again. “Oh I see, you’re amazing.”

“It’s…nothing…” Yachi felt the skip of her heart beat went faster than before and she couldn’t really accept Hinata’s words so wholeheartedly because she was embarrassed. Her cheeks were flushing and she could feel her neck was starting to get warmer too. She laughs off her flustered emotions aside with a broken chuckle.

Hinata continued on to copy Yachi’s notes attentively afterwards. Watching the two boys writing so spiritedly, Yachi were curious to why they had to work so hard for volleyball.

“So…Hinata-kun…” Yachi started.

“Just Hinata is fine.” Hinata chirped without taking his eyes away from his notes.

“Do you not like studying, Hinata?”

A cloud of gloom appeared above Hinata’s head as he looked up from his notes. “I hate it. Sitting for a long time like this sucks.”

“So you’re trying really hard so you can go to Tokyo?”

“Yeah! We’re going to have practice matches with the strongest schools from Tokyo.” Hinata chirped excitedly.

Somehow in that few seconds of amazement, Yachi was enchanted by Hinata’s passion about volleyball. He seemed so serious about making it through the final exams.

That made Yachi a little envious. “That’s amazing. I’ve never thought about anything so seriously before.” Yachi muttered.

Hinata proceed to tell Yachi about the current team’s rival is a school from Tokyo called Nekoma and how there were several players that were considered super powerful from their positions in volleyball terms that seemed to fly pass Yachi’s ears because she didn’t understand these volleyball terms quite right. He proceed in telling her about the powerhouses that he was looking forward to play against when he mentioned that one of the player’s height was about 190cm tall.

“190cm?!” Yachi was perplexed. Volleyball sounds like a rough sports game to her somehow. But she was also curious about another thing. “Hinata, are you a manager too?”

“Why?”

“I thought only tall people play volleyball and there were a lot of tall people at the team too.”

Hinata’s face turned into an expression of hurt and shock as he explained. “I m-may be short but I’m also a regular on the team too.”

The last thing Yachi wanted to do to another person is to misjudge them especially when she judged them only from their appearance. But she isn’t exactly doing great so far because she just offended one of regulars from the volleyball team.

Feeling awfully embarrassed and horrified due to her mistake, Yachi bowed her head in return for an apology. “I’m so sorry!”.

“That’s fine! I’m used to it.” Hinata chirped back in response, unbothered by her misjudgment. “Even if I’m not tall, I can fly!”

With his smile full of confidence and bravery, such expressions that Yachi rarely sees on someone before, she was somehow becoming more perplexed by how awfully courageous Hinata came out to be. Yachi went speechless for a few seconds after Hinata’s response that it took Kageyama’s nudge to Hinata to shake her out of her reverie.

Seeing Hinata being so excited about facing tall and stronger teams in the future, Yachi added. “Then you must be like the Little Giant, Hinata.”

“You know about the Little Giant too?!” Hinata jumps from his seat.

Kageyama merely rolled his eyes when he sees Hinata reacting vibrantly towards Yachi’s comment. The dark haired boy then stares towards Yachi who seemed to be having difficulties in responding to Hinata. She momentarily shifts his eyes towards him for help but Kageyama only shrugged his shoulders and continue to write down on his notebook again.

‘I guess this is the usual reaction when someone talks to Hinata according to Kageyama’s reaction.’

“Isn’t it a term when they call Japanese players who fights against tall and strong foreigners in sports matches?” Yachi replied although her voice wavers in uncertainty.

“Oh that’s right. I am the Little Giant.” Hinata nodded brightly at her in return.

“Hey, Little Giant that’s not going to make it to Tokyo, hurry and copy this.” Kageyama reminded Hinata who was starting to go out of topic again and Hinata hurries down to finish off their writing before the bell ring soon.

Yachi helped with the rest of the studies afterwards and they were able to make it before the bell rings when Hinata bounced back to Yachi again to ask for her number.

“It would be more convenient if I can ask you some questions through messages, is that fine with you, Yachi-san?” Hinata asks as he flips out his phone on his hand.

Surprisingly Kageyama was also quick to follow. “Me too.” Before he added with a soft, “Please.”

Yachi smiles at them both, feeling a little impressed that the boys were actually trying hard to get through their final exams with whatever they can so Yachi couldn’t help but feel touched by their effort.

“It’s okay.” Yachi took out her own phone and proceed to exchange numbers with the two boys in front of her as they typed out their phone numbers in her phones as well. Seeing both Kageyama and Hinata wrote their names in hiragana, Yachi was started to feel strangely peculiar after she realized that she just put boys’ numbers in her phone for the first time.

“Will you teach us again next time?” Hinata requested as the boys were about to leave from her classroom.

Yachi nodded. “Yes. Helping you both also helps me revise the materials too.”

Suddenly Hinata reached out to grab Yachi’s hands in his as he excitedly shakes her hands up and down in gratitude. Yachi was too slow to even compute what just happened as he thanked her for her help with their English studies

Yachi was thankful that Kageyama didn’t start to shake her hands up and down too or else she won’t be able to compute her brain even longer.

“See you at the club later!” Hinata waved goodbye as Kageyama took a bow in return as they both walked back to their own classes.

Yachi sighed at their figures disappearing into the distance. Keeping her flushed hands that was recently held by Hinata, she breathes deeply in exhaustion. “What is this feeling…it feels like I’m been directly left out under the sun for a while.”

When Yachi reached back to her desk, she sees her open English notebooks and were about to pack them away when she sees the additional writing that was left on her page recently. On the corner of the page, there was a brightly colored sunflower with a small sunny face and a bubble speech saying “Thank you, Yachi-san!” followed by a drawing of an orange-haired and dark haired chibi crows next to it.

Yachi couldn’t help but laugh lightly at the adorable drawings from the page already guessing who just left the additional drawings on her notebook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing is harder than I thought. I'm always scared to post new chapters because I don't think it's good enough to post but you know what, this is fanfic after all and I can edit whenever I can. I'm having fun plotting the story but writing it out is difficult. I hope I can finish the third chapter soon because I'm excited to share it here :)


	3. Chapter 3

The school marks for the end of the day and Yachi tried to change her uniform in the bathroom sneakily before she went back to her class and grab her bag before going to the gymnasium. However even though she tries to be quite about it, her seatmate notices the change of uniform when she spotted Yachi.

“Eh, why did you change into P.E uniform, Yacchan?”

Yachi falters at Mikoto’s words as she sheepishly smiled back while she folds her uniform into her bag. “I…I’m going to gym later.”

Mikoto furrowed her eyebrows. “Why?”

Yachi shyly played with her fingers as she replied. “I’m…I’m trying out for volleyball club as a candidate manager.”

Mikoto widened her eyes, turning her body to face Yachi fully as she walks closer. “Really? I thought you said you weren’t interested in joining any clubs recently. What changed your mind?”

Yachi rubs the back of her head, a nervous tick that she has ever since she was young. “Um…it just happened, I guess. The current volleyball’s club manager reached out to me and told me that it’s okay to try out first.”

Mikoto nodded as she finally smiled in Yachi’s direction. “That’s great, Yacchan! I’m so happy for you! Then, please do your best later!” Mikoto pumps her fists up in the air to cheer Yachi up.

Yachi could only laugh lightly, thankful that her friend was supportive of her decision with this. Hopefully this uplifting energy can help her throughout the entire practice later on.

-

Yachi hops carefully towards the gymnasium where the current volleyball club was starting with their practice. She could hear the loud spikes and several shouts within the gymnasium and Yachi can’t help but feel her nervousness builds up again inside her stomach.

Since the door was opened halfway, Yachi sneakily hid behind the door and peeked her head in and inspect the area first. She sees several members were already spiking some balls up in the air and the rest were still stretching up on the other side of the court.

What Yachi needed to do right then is to enter the gym and announced her arrival but somehow she didn’t have the confidence to make the move yet so she kept stuck on peeking behind the doors. That is until Hinata sees her blonde hair peeking in from the outside and he jumps at the sight of her.

“Yachi-san!”

Yachi falters at the sight of Hinata suddenly appearing right in front of her. He then pulls out a piece of paper which looked like a test answer sheet as he exclaimed loudly. “This afternoon’s English quiz had some parts that you taught me and I got 1/3 of them right!”

Joy spread from Yachi’s chest as she jumps along with Hinata’s brimming happiness. “Woah, that’s great! Looks like your hard work paid off.”

“This is all thanks to your help too. Although sensei told me I should do better but this is an improvement! You are still up for tutoring me, right?”

“Of course.” Yachi nodded enthusiastically. “You are serious about going to Tokyo so I’ll do my best to help your studies as well.”

Hinata smiles wavered with extra tint of joy as he bounces on his feet again. “You’re so kind, Yachi-san! I’m glad we have you on our team.”

Yachi could only smile sheepishly in response. Upon noticing that Yachi was still outside of the gym, Hinata reached out to Yachi’s hand and pulled her in. “Come in, Yachi-san. There’s no need to be so stiff in the club. Everyone is pretty excited to have you here.”

With Hinata’s contact in holding her hand and pulling her in so easily, Yachi almost stumbled on her own feet but she managed to maintain her center of gravity after she enters inside. She was a little surprised at Hinata’s gesture of reaching out to her easily without any second thoughts because Yachi isn’t used to holding hands with people, especially boys.

Somehow she felt the warmth starting to flush her neck and cheeks for a bit before she manages to stand properly on her own feet and pulled her hand back from Hinata’s as she timidly held it against her chest.

“Ah, have you met the rest of the members?” Hinata perked up.

Yachi shook her head, “Not really.”

Then Hinata turned to the side and called out the closest member near them. “Yamaguchi! Come and meet Yachi-san properly, ah – Tsukishima, you too!”

Two tall boys entered her field of vision as Yachi stared upwards to them. ‘T-tall! They do really look like people who play volleyball with that height.’

“Why do you have to shout, Hinata. You’re too loud.” The blonde haired glasses-san spoke when he came near with the other boy next to him. Yachi remembered that this glasses-san was Hinata’s and Kageyama’s previous tutor. Yachi did felt like glasses-san was a no-nonsense type of person from his expression.

“What’d you say?!” Hinata growled back towards glasses-san in annoyance. Although Yachi noticed that Hinata’s glowering didn’t really affect glasses-san too much.

Yachi puts a smile as she faced towards the two tall boys. “N-nice to meet you, my name is Yachi Hitoka.”

“Tsukishima Kei.” Glasses-san introduces himself as he gave her a small bow of his own.

The other tall boy, albeit shorter than Tsukishima, wore a friendly smile as he introduces himself. “I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi. It’s nice to meet you too, Yachi-san.”

There was a lot of comparison between Tsukishima and Yamaguchi but Yachi could tell that by their presence and aura, they weren’t that intimidating after all. The only issue that made Yachi nervous about them was the fact that they were very tall, like Kageyama, and it made her feel a little too small for her own good. But despite Tsukishima’s aloof expression and Yamaguchi’s kind expression – Yachi finds herself being comfortable around them.

“Yamaguchi was the one who told me to get help from you, Yachi-san. If it weren’t for his idea, we wouldn’t be able to pass our finals properly in the future.” Hinata added.

To Hinata’s explanation, Yamaguchi’s freckled cheeks was suddenly flushed with his own faint redness. “I-I merely suggested them to ask for help to you, Yachi-san. I hope it’s fine with you.”

‘So he was the one who referred them to me.’ Yachi nodded in understanding. “It’s fine, Yamaguchi-san. I don’t mind helping them at all. In fact, tutoring them helps me revise the materials as well.”

“You should tell them to stop whenever it gets too much for you, Yachi-san. Speaking from personal experience, it’s difficult to teach idiots like Hinata and Kageyama.” Tsukishima sneered with a smirk.

‘Wah…he’s got that kind of personality, huh.’ Yachi reacted to Tsukishima’s wording as Hinata and Kageyama, who surprisingly appeared right besides Yachi while he held on a volleyball, glowered right to Tsukishima.

“Well, well – certainly it has been quite of a something but Yachi-san seemed incredibly helpful to your studies.” Yamaguchi addressed to Hinata and Kageyama.

“If only he wouldn’t be so stingy and mean when he taught us.” Hinata grumbled but his words were caught with a sneering expression back from Tsukishima.

Glasses-san crossed his arms and looked down to the two (failing) boys. “It’s too bad that your brain is just too full of volleyball that you can’t even process your brain properly, it’s obvious how tiring it is to teach you anything related to academics.”

“Or maybe you’re just not good at teaching people, bleh.” Hinata stuck out his tongue in mockery.

Then Kageyama added. “That’s right, it’s not my fault that I can’t keep up with you. Yachi-san is much better at teaching than you. She even taught us how to color code notes properly.”

“That’s right!” Hinata huffed alongside Kageyama.

Yachi blinked at Kageyama who is surprisingly avid about this matter. ‘Was he always that energetic or he is just upset at Tsukishima-san?’

“Color…code?” Tsukishima muttered.

“It seems like Hinata and Kageyama-kun are visual learners so I helped them by marking their notes in different colors so that they’ll be able to remember things easier.” Yachi replied.

“Eh…you even had to teach them that way.” Tsukishima spoke out in a monotone voice, as if he was amused yet not impressed by Hinata and Kageyama improve in their note-taking. “Don’t spoil them too much, Yachi-san.”

“Eh? Um…okay.” She replied unsurely.

Hinata and Kageyama seemed to continue their bicker to Tsukishima as they kept on going about how Yachi’s studying methods was better compared to the blonde haired boy who in turn merely rolled his eyes out of boredom. Meanwhile, Yamaguchi seemed like he could only listen from the side and laugh lightly at their bickering – perhaps this was also a common trope in their conversation between the four of them.

‘They seem really close with each other’ Yachi concluded from their conversation.

Afterwards Yachi was called by Kiyoko who started to tell her the ropes on how to manage the team from the sides and what they should do during practices. Yachi learned that she needed to make sure that the water bottles are kept full, the net of the volley is set in the appropriate height, and make sure the floor’s not too wet or messy so she has to mop them frequently even during the games when sweat would drop to the floor.

Even by the instructions and rules told by the older manager, Yachi kept on being on attentive 100% while she writes down all the things she needed to remember by heart. What was most important that she needs to make sure the members and coaches as a team work cooperatively at best so that the games would ensure a good result.

“I guess that’s all you need to know for now but I will tell you more on what we should do during the practices in the future. Ah, also one more thing – make sure you’re careful of any stray balls coming to your way.” Kiyoko explained.

“Yes, senpai.” Yachi saluted before she looks around anxiously.

‘Stray balls…are they dangerous after all?’

“Hello.”

Yachi flinched when a deeper voice that seemed to come from an adult’s man voice behind her. When she turns around, she was a baffled that there was a man in red jersey with wild blonde hair and piercings on his ears. ‘Scary…who…who is this person?’

“I’m actually the coach so….if you need anything please let me know.”

“I’m sorry!” The words already left out of Yachi’s mouth because she almost mistook this man as a random stranger who appeared in the court. ‘Did I misjudge another person based on their appearance again?! Hitoka you idiot!’.

“Calm down, girlie. It’s fine. It seems like you’re really nervous. Don’t worry about handling any heavy matters. Just make sure if you have questions about the team or volleyball in general, you can come to me. Ah, my name is Ukai Keishin. You can call me coach too if you’d like.”

Yachi stood up from her bow and saluted. “Y-yes, sir!”

Coach Ukai smiled, a little amused by her adorable reaction when she tries to puff up her chest and tried appeared bravely. “Don’t worry. Just have fun, okay.”

Once the coach left, Kiyoko came and tells Yachi to inspect the players as the practice starts. Ever so slowly, Yachi’s world starts to widen as the balls that were being lifted up in the air and was constantly hit by the players.

It was like a dance. A strong powerful dance with the ball that kept flying in the air. Yachi flinched a few times when the balls were smacked by players strongly until she hears it slapped against the ground with a loud noise that screeched in her ears. But it wasn’t an unpleasant sound in fact –

“Amazing.” Yachi couldn’t help but fell into a trance as she watches the game.

Several people were jumping to avoid the ball from entering their side of the court, some were keeping in constant check while they make sure the ball never touches the ground, the yells and shouts of the players as they encourage each other to connect to the ball, even everyone’s expression changes differently each time they touched the ball.

Then in one second, a stray ball came hurling towards Yachi’s direction and before she was able to cover herself in protection – Hinata came and smacked the ball away from Yachi’s direction. Yachi was instantly astonished by the quick movement.

“Are you faring well?” Kiyoko came towards Yachi at the sides.

“Yes. This is the first time I watched volleyball match closely other than P.E classes. This is very different…everyone is amazing.” Yachi sees a stray ball coming again but this time it was Kiyoko who easily taps the ball away from them effortlessly.

“Karasuno is actually pretty strong and we went to nationals too in the past.” Kiyoko explained.

“Nationals?”

“But in the last few years we were called fallen powerhouse or flightless crows. This time we’re going to the national stage.” Kiyoko looked over to the players again.

With the seriousness in her eyes, Yachi began to understand why everyone was working hard in their practices. They had a big goal in their mind and that is the nationals.

“Amazing…. they’re all so different from me.” _Me who has no direct goals in life._

Yachi has never been so serious in her entire life after all so joining an amazing club like this was a new world to her. She kept on staring at each members’ play and how they were so into every spikes, every hit, every toss, everyone was putting their heart into it. This was a world where Yachi could tell that they were not playing around for a half-hearted goal.

They were serious about going to nationals. With everything they have.

And is she allowed to be a part of that?

-

The practice went on into the evening after the sunset when the sky was already dark. Yachi followed Kiyoko’s as they were closing up the practice but in the meantime, the club’s advisor, Takeda-sensei seemed like he had something to say before the they can end the practice.

There is going to be a practice match against another school, Ouginishi, in the next scheduled practice. Everyone was told to be prepared for that practice match and make sure everything goes accordingly. Yachi watches with anticipation as the team talked amongst themselves as they look forward to their practice match.

It didn’t take long to change back into her regular uniform afterwards and Yachi checks the gym if there was anything else she could help with but found out that there isn’t much to do besides finishing up and go back home. Kiyoko tells Yachi to wait for her as she needs to change back into her own clothes and so Yachi waits by the gymnasium door with her hands clutched to the straps of her bag as she looked down to her feet.

‘There are so many things to think about when it comes to volleyball after all. It looks like there were some terms that I didn’t recognize…maybe I should learn by myself more about the sport when I come back home – ah! Should I even do that?’

It was at that moment when she overhears the coach talking with the advisor teacher from the opened windows of the gym.

“What’s wrong, sensei?”

“Apparently the bus we were supposed to take for the away games in Tokyo was booked by another club so I don’t think we can get it. It looks like it’s going to cost us more than expected so I’ve been wondering what to do.”

‘The team can’t go to Tokyo without proper funding? Maybe if there’s another way…’ Yachi wonders along their conversation before her train of thought was abruptly cut by a loud voice calling for her.

“Yachi-san! Are you going to join the club as the manager?” Hinata bounced to her.

‘How does he have so much energy even after practice?’ Yachi thought to herself as she struggles to find a proper response to his question. “U-um…”

“Hey, first year girl, hey.” Another voices suddenly calls for her attention and Yachi looked aside to see two intense-looking-boys facing her.

‘They were…Tanaka-san and Nishinoya-san if I’m not mistaken.’ Yachi tries to familiarize their face in her mind.

“We hope you can join the team as our manager.” Nishinoya speaks up first before Tanaka added.

“Because Shimizu-san seems to be talking a lot when you’re here.”

However, their silly words seemed to be disapproved by the captain, Daichi, as he fists his hands to their heads. “What kind of invitation is that, you idiots.”

A grey haired boy came next as he stands in front of Yachi from the side. “I’m so sorry about these idiots, Yachi-san. Please don’t mind them too much.” Sugawara said.

Yachi shook her head in response. “It’s fine…it’s just…I’m a little bit flattered and overwhelmed.”

“How so?” Sugawara asked, interested to hear the reason why.

“I’ve never done something on my own and I never had someone need me for anything so it’s all very new for me. Even in dramas I’ve always been the extras like the Townsperson B or a tree. So when Shimizu-senpai came to recruit me, someone who has no knowledge or experience on volleyball, I was really happy but…” Yachi trails off unconfidently, “I’m not sure If not much – “

“I get what you mean.” Tanaka cuts her off as he stares dramatically into the distance, “If Shimizu-senpai said ‘I’m stealing money from you so follow me’ I’ll follow her anywhere.”

“Huh?” Yachi was so surprised by his explanation so she doesn’t really understand what he meant by that.

Then suddenly all of the boys starting to get excited about it and continue to mention about other things as well. It got off too sidetracked that even Yachi couldn’t follow along their conversation.

“Sorry, they are so stupid that it’s hard to keep a conversation about this.” Dachi came around and apologized for his juniors as he looked back towards them and huffed tiredly. It was like watching a dad who was overwhelmed by their own children.

“But don’t worry about it too much, Yachi-san. What is important is your choice so you don’t have to force yourself to join the club if you want. But I’ll be honest that it’ll be extremely helpful to have someone like you in our team.” Daichi added reassuringly.

Like a big brother comforting their younger siblings, Yachi felt exactly like that in that moment. “A-are you sure?”

“I can tell you get along with everyone too, Yachi-san. Managing a sports team like us might be shocking for you but I’m sure you’ll find the better moments in spending more time with us. You already helped Hinata and Kageyama, that’s already a big accomplishment for supporting our team.” Daichi said.

Yachi nodded, her mind begins to wonder the advantages of her entering this team in the future. It wouldn’t hurt her to learn a little bit from joining an extracurricular club plus, when will she ever get such fortunate opportunities like this?

She suddenly felt a big warm hand rubbing her head affectionately. Yachi looked up in surprise and sees Daichi smiled at her. “Like I said, don’t worry too much. We will accept your choice either way, Yachi-san. I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Although it was a little bit embarrassing being patted like this, it didn’t feel that bad being reassured like this. “Un!” Yachi beamed her own smile towards the captain.

Unknowingly her smile shines a bright twinkle towards the friendly captain who was caught off guard by her twinkling sweet smile. A flutter of butterflies appeared in his stomach momentarily before he pulls his hand away from her head.

When Kiyoko appeared again, Yachi immediately hops to the older girl’s way. Daichi unconsciously clench and unclench his hand that patted Yachi’s head earlier.

“She is small.” Daichi muttered.

“I saw that, Daichi.” Sugawara suddenly appeared beside him and smirked.

“Geh!” Daichi choked on air, feeling embarrassed that he was being watched by the setter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> doki doki yacchan :3


	4. Chapter 4

She was glad that she made it back home in time for dinner. Yachi was so tired after joining the practice earlier that she didn’t have much energy left in conversing with her mom so she ate quietly. After she was done with dinner, she helps to clean up the rest of the dirty plates as her mom prepares for her work.

“Hitoka, I’ve got one more meeting so I’ll be home late.”

“Okay. See you later, mom.” Yachi replied as she dries the plates from the racks.

“Make sure you clean up over here.”

“Yes.”

As her mom moves to pick up her folder from the table, she sees Yachi’s open bag and funny-drawn-looking poster came out of it. Intrigued by the funny drawing, the woman picked it up and inspected it.

“Hm? What is this?” Yachi’s mom laughs lightly at the drawing as Yachi perked up at what her mother was looking at.

Yachi came over to her mom’s side. “Actually, I was invited to be a manager for the boys’ volleyball team.”

“Volley?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, the ball rang and her mother places down the poster and walked towards the door. Yachi follows along as her mother continues to talk, “Didn’t Karasuno’s volleyball team make it to the nationals before? They are a powerhouse, right?”

“Yes. Lately they’ve been strong as well.” Yachi hops down to the door and unlocks it, opening the door to reveal her mother’s assistant.

“The taxi’s here.” Fugaku-san says as he opens the door wider.

“Do you know anything about volleyball?” Yachi’s mother asks.

Even though she asked it in a gentle tone, it seems it was sharp enough to shake Yachi’s mind.

“I plan on learning more about it.” Yachi responded.

“That’s fine but joining passionate people when you aren’t going to give your all is the rudest thing anyone can do.”

The words hit on Yachi like a hard rain but Yachi understands that her mother was being right. Still, it didn’t sit right with her afterwards. Was she not passionate enough to join the club? Was she not good enough to participate as the manager to support the team? Maybe there are someone who is better at becoming a manager than she was?

Yachi’s anxiousness grew slowly from that moment regarding to volleyball. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone after all much less the volleyball team who worked so hard to make it to the nationals. She didn’t want to ruin their momentum.

“I’m counting on you to make breakfast tomorrow.” Her mom says before she leaves the apartment and closed the door behind her.

Yachi ponders in silence over her mother’s words and her thoughts about joining volleyball.

-

For the next volleyball practice after school, Kiyoko and Yachi had a conversation about becoming a manager at the girl’s changing room when Kiyoko saw Yachi pondering over the blank page of the club application form.

Kiyoko explains that even though she was in a sports team previously, she didn’t know anything about becoming a manager or volleyball.

“I don’t think you have to like something in order to try. You don’t need an unwavering will or a lofty motive to start. Sometimes things that you start on a whim end up becoming very important to you too. I think you just need a little curiosity to start.”

Yachi considers her senpai’s words on this. Despite her mother saying that not giving her all might be considered rude to joining the team but she also weighs out the option of trying out something out of curiosity. Yachi was in fact curios about volleyball and the team that plays it.

-

Upon reaching the gymnasium, Kiyoko ordered Yachi to prepare for Ouginishi school that will come by to play a practice match. She starts by heading towards the stage to grab some chairs out of the compartment under the stage when Hinata came to her and asked whether she needs any extra hands.

“No, it’s fine. Just do your own thing.”

Hinata then proceed to pump himself up by slapping his hands against his cheeks hard which shocks Yachi in return.

Watching Hinata hyping himself up, Yachi grew curious. “Um, today is a practice match, right? I was wondering why you can study so hard to play in away games and gets fired up after playing a game.”

“Huh, it’s because I want to get stronger and win.” Hinata seems genuinely confused about her question.

“I see…I’m sure you have your own reasons to win.”

“Reason?” Hinata walks closer and towers Yachi’s height before his expression shifts into something raw. “Do you need a reason to not want to lose?”

Yachi trembles at his expression. ‘Was it offensive to ask him that?’ She gulps.

Hinata then looked aside and spotted Kageyama who has shaking his water bottle while he leaned on to the stage. “Hey, Kageyama. Do you need any reason to not want to lose?”

“Ha? How should I know?” He turned around to reply, furrowing his eyebrows. “Is there a reason to eat when you’re hungry?”

“Right? Hmm…” Hinata hums in agreement as he went into a deep thought over this.

Yachi felt a little silly with their answers. ‘So this is the same level as hunger for them.’

“Sorry, that was an inane question.” Yachi spoke out.

“Inane question?” Both Hinata and Kageyama tilts their head in confusion.

Then they both flinched at Tsukishima’s voice from the distance. “ _A foolish question or a comment said to abase oneself after asking such a question._ We just went over it the other day!”

The two boys then faltered at the reminder.

Yachi chuckles at their reaction before she continues to lift a chair out of the compartment when Kageyama comes and helps her slid two chairs at one time with his hands. Yachi was about to tell him that she was fine doing it on her own but Kageyama cuts to it first.

“Hey, I really don’t understand how you say you’ve never do anything for your own sake. Is becoming a manager such a big thing for you?” Kageyama asks as he carries the chairs in his hand.

Yachi shifted the chair she carries currently as she answers Kageyama’s question. “It does seem a little silly but I rarely do things for my own sake. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid of the outcome.”

“The outcome?” They both carried the chairs to the other side of the room to line them up.

Yachi nodded. “I’m scared of failure. Truthfully, I’m scared of not being successful. It feels like I have to do everything by myself and if I don’t I’ll have to face the consequences and face the disappointment.”

Kageyama blinks at her words, familiar with her words and feelings of it as well. While he places the chairs down, he spoke out. “But you won’t be by yourself.”

“Huh?” Yachi placed down the chair that she carries before staring at Kageyama.

Kageyama stood up and looked down to her, facing her directly with his honestly. “You won’t be alone in the process. I…I used to think like that too but recently reality showed me that it doesn’t have to be lonely doing things that you want to do.”

“Kageyama-kun…” Yachi wondered what he meant by telling her that he used to have the familiar phase like hers. _You won’t be alone in the process_ – rings quite a bell for her in this situation.

Kageyama suddenly cleared his throat and shifts his eyes to the side. “Besides…it would be awful if you won’t tutor us anymore. Your presence helped me – I mean us – your presence helped us a lot, Yachi-san.”

Yachi felt astonished when she sees Kageyama’s cheeks slightly tinted with a shade of pink as he kept shifting his eyes away from hers momentarily. He cleared his throat again and covered his mouth with the back of his hand, suddenly feeling awfully –

‘Shy? Why is Kageyama suddenly…’

“Kageyama. If you’re done helping, then set some balls for me.” Tanaka’s voice suddenly cuts in and Kageyama turned around rapidly.

Yachi sees it for a few seconds when she spotted the tips of Kageyama’s ears turned pink when she faced away from her.

When Ouginishi came Yachi helped setting up the uniforms and colored vests as well as collecting the stray balls on the ground. Incidentally since this was a boys’ team, it didn’t really matter much where they change their uniform so when Hinata instantly pulls up his shirt right in front of Yachi, her face went flushed red when she sees him topless before her as she turns to look aside and a few steps away from the members who were starting to change their tops to the volleyball uniform.

“Sorry, you’ll have to get used to this.” Kiyoko senpai tells her gently, feeling sorry for the girl who experienced a culture shock.

Yachi watches the team on as they bicker noisily around with each other, reminding her of something very familiar. “A flock of birds.” She commented by the spectacle.

Kiyoko chuckles and agreed. “They are crows after all but once they play a game they get along with each other well.”

Which reflects the truth when Yachi sees the entire team’s aura shifted into something ravenous when they entered the court. When the referee blew the whistle, words seem to freeze in Yachi’s brain when she sees Kageyama jumped and did a service ace that landed a point for the team. The game followed up by a rally where the team keeps on hitting the ball with powerful spikes, blocking the ball over the net with height and saving the ball from touching the ground with amazing reflexes.

“What an intense game…” Yachi couldn’t help but feel impressed more and more.

Then she sees the quick movement from Hinata as he ran across the court and jumps taller than the net, spiking the ball that was tossed by Kageyama. It went by so quick and fast like a lightning that it caught her off guard, spiking the ball with an incredible power.

“When they keep focusing on the powerhouses they lose sight of the small crow.” Kiyoko commented.

 _I can fly! -_ Hinata’s words seems to ring in her mind when they met each other for the first in her class. ‘Hinata did really fly. Amazing.’

Yachi felt even more curious to see the amazing quicks by Hinata and Kageyama throughout the game. She was so into it that she sometimes forgets to roll the point board for the score.

When the practice match was over, Yachi did her usual rounds by collecting the balls and fold the chairs to put it back to the compartment. This is when Hinata bounced up back to her again and asked whether she had fun watching the game earlier.

“Then join the team as a manager, please!” Hinata voiced.

“Um…”

“Do it, Yachi-san!”

“For an amazing team like this, a Townsperson B like me, is going to get in the way.” Yachi voices her concern.

“Oh I played a Townsperson B too before but I got in trouble because I was too hyped up for it.” Hinata added.

On the other hand, Kageyama who passes by snorted at Hinata’s comment. “Townsperson B. Ha.”

Hinata hissed back towards Kageyama. “Don’t make fun of me! Townsperson B has its own coolness!”

Yachi inflated at his words. He voiced such confidence and trust for the role of Townsperson B.

“I see.” Kageyama didn’t seem impressed.

“Then Kageyama, what role did you play as?” Hinata grumbled.

Kageyama turned to face them and lifted his chin up. “The moon.”

“Was that even needed?” Tsukishima commented briefly.

“Damn it, that’s cool.” Hinata gritted his teeth in envy.

“I played as a horse before.” Asahi chirped brightly.

“Townsperson B has its own coolness.” Yachi muttered under her breath.

_Joining passionate people when you aren’t going to give your all is the rudest thing anyone can do._

_I think you just need a little curiosity to start_

_You won’t be alone in the process_

Yachi’s determination swirls inside her as she looked back to the team full of ideas running inside her mind. If there is one thing she can support is through her own way.

When she reaches back home, Yachi cleaned up, ate her dinner and went to her desk immediately as she starts to sketch out the outline for the volleyball donation poster. This is the way that she can help through her way.

Her phone buzzed a few times signaling messages coming in. Yachi flips it open to find some messages from Hinata.

_Yachi-san, I have some literature work that I need to work over with you. Is it okay if we do a study session at your place on Saturday tomorrow if it’s not a bother? Kageyama also needed some help in this as well._

Yachi hums as she thinks over the weekend schedule before she texted back.

_Sure. I’m free on Saturday and you’re both welcome to come over to study. Here’s my address._

A few minutes after her reply, Hinata messaged back.

_Thank you, Yachi-san! You’re the best!_

Yachi smiles at his reply before she slaps her own cheeks and pumped up herself. “Yosh – do your best, Hitoka!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little excited for the next chapters since it contains some shoujo scenario haha. I hope you all like the new chapters :)


	5. Chapter 5

When Saturday comes, Yachi waits from early morning for the boys to come. She hoped that they didn’t lose their way to her place since her apartment complex is quite far from Karasuno school. Her mother watched her daughter with amusement as she sees Yachi’s expression of anticipation. Even from their breakfast time, Yachi kept looking at the clock on the wall constantly.

“Are these boys from the volley team you were talking about?” Her mother asked once they finished eating breakfast and clean up the dishes together.

Yachi wipes one of the plates in her hands with a towel as she hummed in response. “Hn. Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shoyo. They are from different classes but we get along pretty well.”

Madoka smiles with pride when she sees her daughter continued to talk about the two boys that she had befriended recently. How she usually studies and eat lunch together at school, how Hinata and Kageyama likes to pick her up to go to the gym after school. It was very sweet and refreshing, considering Madoka knows how her daughter is quite the nervous type but once she met the right people, she starts being social again.

“As long as you are keeping your grades are good, I don’t mind you helping out the boys.” Madoka commented as she finishes off the dishes and wipes her hands with a towel before she added. “Just make sure if you made the decision to join the club as their manager, you have to give your all and not waste their time.”

Yachi’s eyebrows furrowed in her mother’s comment. She knew it was important to let herself be confident in her decisions but she still doubts herself whether she can be a good manager to the team.

The doorbell rings, signaling the boys’ arrival. Yachi placed the dishes down and ran towards the door. “They’re here!”

When Yachi opened the front door, she was greeted with Hinata and Kageyama. “Good morning, Yachi-san!” Hinata beamed.

“Good morning.” Kageyama greeted.

Yachi smiled at their arrival. “Good morning! Please, come in.” She says as she lets the boys enter the front door and take off their shoes.

Upon entering, both Hinata and Kageyama chants, “Thank you for having us.” As they went inside to take off their shoes. When Kageyama placed his shoes aside, his eyes caught towards something that made him pay attention.

Along the hallway of the Yachi’s entrance, there was as table that placed a small ornate _butsudan **[1]**_ on the left side. Kageyama walks behind Yachi and Hinata as he spotted a picture frame of a man on the table of _butsudan_ , with brown hair and brown eyes smiling brightly. He isn’t sure who the man was but he felt that it was necessary to pay his respect since Yachi kindly invited him and Hinata to her home.

Kageyama then gently asks to Yachi, “Yachi-san…is it okay if we pay our respects?”

Yachi turned around, surprised that Kageyama requested it. Hinata also seem to move his attention towards the _butsudan_ as well, he spotted the picture frame before he looked at Yachi. “A relative?”

Yachi puts a small smile, “My father. You’re both welcome to pay your respects.”

Kageyama nodded as he went in front of the _butsudan_ as Hinata follows. Yachi sat behind them as she pays respect to her deceased father with a prayer. The offering went by a few minutes before Yachi loosened her hands and stood up.

“Thank you, Kageyama-kun. Hinata.” Yachi says her gratitude.

“Of course.” Hinata beamed before he follows along Yachi, leaving Kageyama behind who finishes paying his respect and followed Yachi where she leads them to the living room.

Yachi already placed her textbooks and notebooks on the table, she let them sit down and tell them to “make yourselves at home” before she excused herself to bring some drinks and snacks for the study sessions.

Madoka then came out and greeted the two boys sitting down on the living room. It was Hinata who noticed her first as he stood up and bowed to Yachi’s mother. “Good morning, Yachi-san. Please, excuse us.”

“Excuse us.” Kageyama follows with a bow of his own.

The older woman smiles and waved her hand, “Good morning. Hinata-kun and Kageyama-kun, right? Please make yourselves at home. I’m going to do some errands so if you need anything, please tell Hitoka.”

“Yes, ma’am.” They both saluted which made Madoka laughed lightly at their hyped response.

“Such polite boys. Well, have fun studying.” Madoka bid her farewell and went out. Yachi came back with a tray of drinks and snacks.

“We have more snacks if you’d like, just tell me if you need more.” She says before she placed down the tray.

Hinata looked at the snacks with bright eyes as he expressed his amazement at the delicious looking cookies. “Woah, cookies! Are these homemade?”

Yachi nodded, “Yes. I baked a lot for today’s study sessions so please don’t hold back.”

“Okay! Ah – I have some exercise papers from my friend from another class about their latest literature quiz…” Hinata began as he pulled out his notes and books to the table.

They proceed to start with their studying sessions. With literature and English as their subjects, both Hinata and Kageyama struggled through the exercises shown by Yachi as she explained to them several parts that they needed to remember.

Sometimes Yachi finds herself chuckling when Hinata and Kageyama briefly bicker with each other, trying outdo one another only to have their results not as they expected. Still, Yachi wanted them to succeed in the final exams so they can go to Tokyo.

During their break time in the late afternoon, Yachi listened attentively to Hinata who was speaking excitedly about the rivals of Karasuno’s volleyball club.

“Date Tech was pretty intense when we fought against them in a match previously. They were almost two meters tall. The way they were able to block our ace, Asahi-san, with their arms looked like this which looked super cool.” Hinata says as he puts his arms up to imitate a blocking position. “If only I could have several centimeters from their height, I’d be unstoppable.”

“You still suck at receiving balls.” Kageyama commented when he sipped his orange juice.

Hinata sneered his eyes, “Do you have to rub it on my face over and over again?”

Yachi trembled at the visualization of two meters’ tall boys. “They sound super strong. Asahi-san must be super strong to hit against their blockers. Are they the best team you played against so far?”

Kageyama replied. “Nekoma was pretty strong. They are quite good at connecting the ball. Their libero is as impressive as Nishinoya-san and their current setter is really smart when it comes to tossing the players at the best spots.”

“That’s Kenma! Yeah, he’s pretty good at setting. Although he might look like he’s unmotivated at first but he’s pretty quick when it comes to setting. Kind of like Kageyama here but he’s…calmer.”

“Idiot.” Kageyama piped by the offhand comment Hinata made.

“Oh – there is Inuoka! He’s as fast as I am and he’s really good at blocking too. But I guess when it comes to blocking from Nekoma, their captain is pretty high specs. He looks like a sneaky cat when he blocks your spikes and he also looks like this.” Hinata then proceed to push his curly hair up while squinting his eyes in a mean expression with a scowl.

Yachi laughs lightly at Hinata’s explanation. She guesses the reason why Hinata and Kageyama wanted to go to Tokyo was because of Nekoma High School.

“Nekoma is like our rivals too that is why we are always looking forward to their play. There is this legendary battle between our schools called ‘Battle at the Trash Heap’. Sounds funny but it’s quite well known.” Hinata explained.

“Woah…cool.” Yachi awed by the explanation. “So Nekoma is the school you’re looking out for, right?”

Hinata shook his head again. “There is also Aoba Jousai. Their captain, the Grand King, is known as the best setter in Miyagi. He’s also coincidentally Kageyama’s senior from middle school.” Hinata folded his arms and pouted, “He’s gaudy-looking but he is super good as a setter. He also has quite powerful serves too.”

“Oikawa-san is known as a well-rounded player. I look up to him very much since middle school.” Kageyama added.

“Yeah, that is why he is called the Grand King. Although they got some strong players too from their side. The turnip-haired guy and the restless-looking one can surprise you in many ways. Their blockers are also tall and quick and not to mention their ace is so strong, he can even go against Asahi-san’s spikes.”

Kageyama nodded. “Iwaizumi-san has always been the best spiker in the team from what I recognized in middle school. Besides, Oikawa-san is very skillful that he can bring out the best performance in every player in his team.”

Hinata pumps his fists. “Uwah it makes me so excited to think about when we’re going to face them again! Ah – after we defeat them, then we can fight against the strongest powerhouse in Miyagi. Shiratorizawa with the ace, Ushijima Japan! Man, he’s so strong that it gives me the goosebumps when I think about facing him in a match.”

“He’s one of the top players in Japan in terms of High School volleyball scene.” Kageyama noted.

‘Woah, they’re facing such strong and powerful rivals to be able to qualify for the nationals? But they’re not intimidated by it at all.’ Yachi thought as she listened to Hinata and Kageyama’s explanation about the best volleyball team in the prefecture.

Eventually the time was passing by into the evening and they all had to end their study session to go back home. Yachi’s mother was preparing to go for another meeting again when they were done as Yachi accompanied the boys out of the apartment.

“Man, you’re such a lifesaver, Yachi-san. Thank you for helping us study on the weekends.” Hinata thanked her when they reached outside. “And also you live in such a cool area too.”

“Come to think of it, we’re close to Shiratorizawa.” Kageyama commented when he looked around the place.

“Oh! Shiratorizawa is only two stations down the line from here.” She explained as both Hinata and Kageyama hummed together.

“Why didn’t you go to Shiratorizawa, Yachi-san?” Hinata asks.

Yachi rubbed the back of her head, “I…didn’t pass their entrance exams.” She replied shyly.

“It’s good that she’s in Karasuno or else there would be no one to teach us.” Kageyama added meanwhile Yachi deflated with a chuckle.

‘That’s sort of true.’

Yachi’s mother then came at the moment, wearing her work attire. Hinata and Kageyama greeted, “Thank you for having us.”

“No problem. Was she a good teacher?” Madoka asked.

“Yes! I will be able to ace through the exams. I think.” Hinata chirped back.

Yachi deflates further. ‘You think?’ 

“Or rather, I wouldn’t let Yachi’s kindness go to waste.” Hinata added quickly, his eyes showed his seriousness. Kageyama nodded to echo his statement as well.

Yachi perked up at his words, her cheeks tainted in pink flush by Hinata’s statement. A warm smile appeared on her lips, feeling incredibly touched by his words.

Madoka side-eyed her daughter’s expression before letting her own lips smile. “I see. Good luck on your exams.”

“Thank you! Yachi-san, let’s go to Tokyo together!” Hinata looked towards Yachi with a hopeful expression.

“Eh? R-right.” Yachi was panicking because she hasn’t talked about it to her mother yet about the camp in Tokyo with the volleyball club. But it seems like her mother merely blinked at Hinata’s words.

“It would be extremely helpful if you join us during the training camp.” Kageyama added, also looking hopeful towards Yachi’s participation in the future training camp.

Afterwards the boys bid their farewells and went on their way. Yachi waved her hand in goodbye as she watches the boy walked further away from them.

Her mother then turned to her when the boys were almost out of sight. “Hitoka, what’s this about Tokyo training camp?”

Yachi flinched before she looked back to her mother because she wasn’t able to speak about the things she had to anticipate when she became a candidate manager and how she was required to go to Tokyo to help the team during the training camp.

However, at that moment, Fugaku-san came by in hurry and it cuts Yachi’s words quickly so she had no choice but to let her mother go.

“I’ll be heading to another meeting. I’ll be home late tonight again.” Her mother says before she walks away.

“Okay.” Yachi looked down in disappointment, seeing her mother leaving already. Sometimes Yachi wished that her mother isn’t so busy when Yachi wanted to tell something important. But it couldn’t be helped after all since Yachi understands how hard her mother’s work can be.

“Let’s go.” Madoka says to Fugaku who looks perplexed by the situation. He could tell that Yachi wanted to say something but held herself back.

“W-wait senpai! Hitoka-chan, weren’t you about to say something important to your mom? Are you okay?” Fugaku asked to the little girl.

Yachi smiles sadly as she shakes her head. “It’s okay. I’ll tell her next time.”

“O-okay. Then, we’ll be going.” Fugaku says before he turns to Madoka with a frown. “Come on, senpai.”

Yachi stood frozen on her ground as she watches the two adults walk away. The weight on her shoulders were somehow starting to feel heavy again and Yachi couldn’t help but frown sadly at her mother.

‘Next time…next time…’ She turns around and head back to her home.

-

When she reached upstairs, she received a message from Hinata who said that he had left his Japanese literature textbook on her living room’s table and he was heading back there again. Yachi texted back that she spotted his book and will wait for him by the door.

While waiting for Hinata for a few minutes, the orange haired boy finally came and beamed happily when he sees his book on Yachi.

“Thank you! I’m so glad I realized it before it was too late.” Hinata accepted the book and put it in his bag.

In this moment, Yachi fidgets with her fingers before she speaks out. “U-um Hinata. Do you have a moment?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

Yachi felt nerve wrecking but she took a deep breath before explaining from the beginning about her decision and worries about joining the volleyball club as the manager. Hinata listens attentively and as Yachi finishes off with her explanation, Hinata simply replied.

“You’re not sure you want to join the club over something like that?”

It was like a pierced arrow right to Yachi’s chest because it was painfully simple but true.

“I’ve spiked hit Kageyama in the back of the head with a serve once, I also puked on Tanaka-san’s lap when I got sick during a bus ride. Ah, I also managed to swipe the Vice Principal’s wig away but look I managed to still play volleyball.”

“Are you sure you were fine during those…” Yachi didn’t feel convinced.

“But you sure you want to do this, right?”

“Yes.” Yachi nodded, knowing full right that she wants to do volleyball as manager properly.

“Then you should do it.”

“Right…it’s as easy as that, huh…” Yachi muttered, her eyes shifted back to the _butsudan_ and sees her father’s picture. At moments like this, sometimes she wishes she could rely on her father to tell her feelings properly.

Hinata noticed that she was staring at her father’s picture before he added. “Were you worried about what your mom said? Then you should tell her properly.”

Yachi turned her head around towards Hinata again, her eyes widening at his words. “Tell…”

“You know what, let’s do it right now! Your mom must not be far from here.”

“Y-yes. She might be at the station.”

Hinata reached towards Yachi’s hand and pulled her. “We need to run fast if we want to catch up to her.”

Then suddenly Yachi felt as if she was flying as Hinata pulled her out of her own house, the door locking automatically behind her as they hurried down through the lift and to through the lobby before they reached outside where Hinata ran swiftly through the streets with Yachi behind him as he kept holding to Yachi’s hand while they ran towards the station.

‘Wh-what is this?! I feel like I’m in shoujo manga! He’s so fast!’ Yachi’s brain screamed while Hinata held on tightly to her hand and pulling her as they ran. There weren’t a lot of people in the streets but Yachi could feel her embarrassment when people started to turn their heads to see Yachi and Hinata running with their hands interlocked together.

Yachi felt everything was overwhelming right at the second. She figured that Hinata never hesitates when it comes to holding her hand and this time he seems like he didn't mind pulling her as they ran together through the streets where people were able to see them. His hand was bigger and rougher compared to her small hands.

It definitely felt strange.

When she felt like her hand was slipping away from his hand, Hinata held on to hers tightly and Yachi couldn’t really tell whether her heart was pounding hardly against her chest because of Hinata’s hand or the fact they were running faster than Yachi could ever run.

But the air was starting to run out of her lungs as Yachi pulled her hand to signal Hinata to slow down. “Wait…” Yachi slowed down her pace and catches up with her breathing. She crouches down a little, her body feeling tired and exhausted.

However, Hinata clasped her hand tighter – leveling his eyes to Yachi’s height. “Yachi-san, at this rate you can’t move forward. You have to push.” He spoke with his golden brown eyes round and clear, “If you want to do this you have to tell her.”

‘He’s right. If I don’t do this now, I will never change from my useless self.’

“Okay.” Yachi says as she stood back up tall again. The weight suddenly being lifted off of her shoulders and she felt her back lighter than before. She clenched back her hand that was still in Hinata’s hand. “I have to do it now.”

Hinata smiled brightly, pulling her hand again. They run together quickly towards the station, with Hinata swiftly avoid crashing into another person, they were able to spot Yachi’s mother in the crowd.

Hinata lets go of Yachi’s hand and with the biggest smile Yachi saw from him, he nodded and motioned towards Yachi’s mother.

Yachi stood tall as she broadened her shoulder and lifted her head up. “Mom!”

Her voice echoes through the busy station and her mother along with Fugaku turned around in shock when they both hear Yachi’s call.

“Hitoka?” Madoka had her mouth gaped open.

Yachi took a deep breath before she continues. “This Townsperson B can fight too!” Taking another deep breath, she yells, “I will become the volleyballs club manager!”

In that moment she felt invincible for the first time. To shout out what she had been worried so much from the past entire week, she was finally saying it to her mother.

Madoka on the other hand blinked at her daughter’s declaration before she nodded, the surprise still lingers on her skin. “Is th-that so? Good luck!”

“Hn! What about dinner?” Yachi asked.

“I will eat at home.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Yachi saluted before she looked to Hinata in amazement and they both cheered on each other happily.

“You did it! Yes, we’re going to be like champion school with two managers!”

“Yay! I did it!” Yachi jumps with Hinata while they both high fived each other repeatedly. Hinata grabs Yachi’s hands and curled his fingers to hold her still.

“I’m happy for you, Yachi-san.” Hinata beamed, “Congratulations.”

Yachi who felt extremely happy, after a long time of worrying endlessly, finally lets out her ultimate brightest smile, twinkling through her expression of happiness. She held back on to Hinata’s hands and nodded before laughing.

Hinata chuckles, echoing her happiness as well. Feeling content in holding her hands and watching her with satisfaction and pride as he basked in her happiness.

He made sure to walk Yachi back home safely afterwards.

* * *

[1] _Butsudan_ , a small Buddhist altar for Japanese homes where the family of the house give offerings to ask for guidance and protection from the spirits of their ancestors and also to put memorials of a deceased family relative.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I have written for this story so far. I'm really liking the idea that Yachi slowly grows out of her nervous shell by interacting with her friends from the volleyball club. Having simple minded and bright people like Hinata is kind of life-saving for her so I really want to emphasize that when Hinata helped Yachi voice out her wish to become manager - he is also helping her break her shell so she can be more independent. I think that kind of jazz is fun to write hehe :)
> 
> I am very happy that wonderful people are leaving comments on this story. Thank you very very very very much for your time to read this silly story! You have no idea how much it means to me when I see your comments :D It totally made my day!
> 
> I have curious questions for my readers, who do you ship Yachi the most with in haikyuu universe? I'm really curious about who my readers ship Yachi with.


	6. Chapter 6

Yachi went to the faculty room the next day as fast as she could to meet Takeda-sensei. With the outline of the poster in her hand, she took a deep breather before she went in and meet the club’s advisor.

“Excuse me, Takeda-sensei.” Yachi calls him out politely.

“Ah, Yachi-san. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Um, I overheard that we might not have enough money for the away games, may I talk to you about that?”

She was able to gain the permission and several information that she can use for the poster. Yachi was filled with determination after knowing that she can continue on the next step.

After school she asked for Hinata and Kageyama for help to spike a ball while she shoots it for the poster. Hinata and Kageyama were very curious so they agreed right away, changing into the official club’s uniform and did several high spikes. Yachi took several shots with her camera carefully to make sure that each angle and lightning of the positions were right.

Several days later, the result of the poster could be seen throughout the entire streets of their area. Hinata stops his cycling when he spotted one of the posters on the window pane of an electronic shop downtown.

With immense emotions, he looked at the poster with amazement. There it was, Hinata’s body that flies in the air in a spiking motion as Kageyama passing a toss towards his way. The shades and color were so bold and vibrant that it made his eyes stuck on the poster for such a long time.

_THE CROWS HEAD BACK INTO THE NATIONAL SKIES_

_THE LITTLE GIANT RETURNS!_

“Amazing…” He mutters under his breath.

He remembers his moments with Yachi when he first met her. She was changing drastically from the past few weeks they introduced themselves. Her nervous expressions, her curious eyes, her bright smiles and lately her confidence when she voices her opinions in helping him and Kageyama.

‘You did it, Yachi Hitoka.’ Hinata couldn’t help but feel pride surging in his chest when he sees the poster. For the anxious girl who was unsure of herself had become so bold through her creation like this poster. He thought that a picture does speak a thousand words because Hinata was so immersed in the poster that he didn’t notice he had been staring at it for such a long time.

The poster made by Yachi had caught several attentions throughout the neighborhood. Daichi, Sugawara and Asahi saw the poster at a bookstore near the school, Nishinoya saw it at a bus stop, Kiyoko, Ennoshita, Ryuu and the rest saw it at Sakanoshita store when coach Ukai proudly patted the freshly put poster he received by Yachi.

Additionally, Yachi’s poster also caught several attention of other people throughout Miyagi. When Takeda-sensei posted it online, her posters were shared and seen by many throughout the area.

Kageyama stares at the poster near a vending machine at the street. A small smile pulled on his lips when he sees it.

“You can do it after all, Yachi-san.”

-

Yachi Hitoka officially became part of the team right after the end of the finals. At the gym, the team gathered around her while wearing the Karasuno’s volleyball official jersey despite the hot weather they were having that day.

“So, we’ve finished our exams and starting today - Yachi will become part of our team as manager.” Daichi announced next to Yachi.

Kiyoko walked towards Yachi to give her her own set of freshly washed jersey. Yachi accepted it gratefully as she stares the the jacket in her hand with a merry expression.

“Welcome to the Karasuno High School volleyball club!” The entire team turned to showcase their backs to show the name of the school club as they stroke a pose, pointing towards the letters on their backs.

Yachi was overwhelmingly joyful as she laughs lightly then she smiles brightly at them. “It’s a pleasure to work with you!”

-

However, fate likes to play around with people who are too happy in their own time. Once they forgot momentarily about what they should be focusing on, reality come to struck them like a brick to the head.

Yachi stares in shock as she felt like crying at the scores shown in the exam sheets that she was holding. Meanwhile Tsukishima was laughing way too much. Hinata and Kageyama both displayed an awfully depressed expression in front of Yachi, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi in the hallway.

“H…how….” Words seem to be stuck in her throat as she reads their test answers again. “The answers were all there…”

“Fufu! So now you both have to take the makeup test because you failed? Hahahaha!” Tsukishima retorted.

Yachi turned to glare at Tsukishima with that witty comment. “D-don’t laugh! They worked so hard at it.”

“Your only option is to plead your case to the vice principal. Though that won’t actually work.” Tsukishima’s entire face has turned smug, he was certainly basking in the failures of the two boys in front of him.

Yamaguchi spoke up as he tries to cool down the atmosphere, “Well, I’m sure there should be another chance to – huh? Where did they go?”

Gone in a flash, the previous bodies of Hinata and Kageyama disappeared from sight when Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and Yachi looked up from the exam papers.

“They’re gone.” Yachi muttered in confusion.

Tsukishima sighed loudly before pushing back his glasses, “Don’t tell me they took my words seriously to plead to the vice principal.”

“That…sounds exactly what they would do.” Yamaguchi replied in concern, “Let’s just hope that they are able to do their remedial and join us to Tokyo.”

“I don’t know if they can make it since we only have one bus that provides us to the Tokyo away games. But if they have a personal driver, I guess it’ll be a different outcome.” Tsukishima added.

Yachi looked at the exam papers in her hand and breathes in. “So Kageyama failed in literature and Hinata in English. We…might be able to help them make it through the remedial if we do last minute crammings for it.”

“I’m not good in English so I’m probably going to help Kageyama with literature.” Yamaguchi offered.

To this offer, Yachi nodded in agreement. “Then I will help Hinata with English.”

To this topic, Tsukishima turned towards both of them with a look of irritation on his face. “You already helped the two idiots with their studies from before, why are you helping them again when they can review it on their own?”

“It doesn’t look like they can do it on their own when we saw their test results, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi replied with a sheepish smile.

Tsukishima didn’t say anything when he stares at Yamaguchi, probably wondering why the freckled cheek boy was also helping out the two troublemakers. He then turned to Yachi, “What about you? Why are you trying so hard to help them? Didn’t you help them the past weeks and even had them come over to your place, Yachi-san?”

Yachi blinked, looking back to the papers in her hand while she bit her bottom lip. She already helped them with their studies but she knew that Hinata and Kageyama still needed a little push in understanding the subjects more so that they can pass the average score.

The recent moments of her spending time with the gloomy black haired boy and the sunny orange haired boy appeared in her mind. Reminding her of the times she watches them work hard through the subjects. Their clear visions from their conversations about going to Tokyo and becoming stronger to enter the national stage – she wanted to be part of the team where she can help them achieve their goals.

“I want them to go to Tokyo. They worked really hard so that they can become strong and I…I want their goals to come true.” Yachi replied as she looked up to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi who were staring at her with bewilderment when she replied with a tone of confidence in her voice. “Besides, it would be troubling if the freak combo duo is missing during practice matches against powerhouses, right?”

Yachi’s glowing brown eyes shines with hope that it caught both Yamaguchi and Tsukishima off guard by her enthusiasm. Yamaguchi was a little perplexed by his own reaction when he caught himself smiling after Yachi displayed a cute expression of hope towards them.

On the other hand, Tsukishima’s eyes glinted as he cocked his head to the side. “You spoil them too much, Yachi-san.”

Yachi didn’t understand why the blond haired boy tells that her wanting to help Hinata and Kageyama would be called ‘spoiling them’.

She answered briefly, “I don’t think I’m spoiling them though but isn’t it common to help amongst friends who are in need of help?”

At this expression, Yachi’s eyes turned round that resembled of a puppy’s face with a golden fur due to the impression of her hair. Her cheeks slightly pink and puffed with air as her pink lips puckered in an adorable small pout.

‘What is this…ah - she’s so cute!’ Yamaguchi’s internal monologue was screaming inside his brain, feeling his neck and cheeks getting warmer due to her display of expression.

Meanwhile Tsukishima faltered a little from her expression. ‘I won’t…shake even by that expression.’ He thought over his head many times before he cleared his throat and pushed his glasses in place.

“I already helped them enough before the finals. You both can do whatever you want.”

With this, Tsukishima walked away from them. Yamaguchi merely sighs, “Don’t mind about Tsukki, Yachi-san. He might seem cold but he actually cares about his teammates.”

Yachi hummed, “If you say so. I still can’t really tell what Tsukishima is thinking. Ah – let’s just hope that we can help Hinata and Kageyama-kun ace their remedial for Saturday.”

She did a little fish pump to the air, trying to encourage Yamaguchi who was on the same boat as her. Yamaguchi couldn’t help but laughed a little, finding himself falling for Yachi’s little cute actions and pumped his fists as well.

“Let’s do our best!”

-

Later in the evening, almost all members of the volleyball team were present at Sakanoshita’s store where Hinata and Kageyama tried a mock-up test under the eyes of Ennoshita. Yachi was watching with keen eyes as both of the boys stress their answers in the test when they finally gave the answer sheet to Ennoshita to mark it up.

However, the result was way worse than their actual final exam scores.

“You guys…why did you get worse now than you did on the actual tests?” Ennoshita said it in a disappointed tone.

Both Hinata and Kageyama wears a gloomy cloud over their heads in shame as well.

Kageyama spoke up first. “Somehow…as soon as the test was over - all the stuff I memorized just disappeared.”

“I forcibly crammed the knowledge into my brain, so it was leaking out my ears by the second.” Hinata added in a similar tone.

Yachi felt the dread from the two boys were overwhelming them and she sympathized with them because she had been in a similar situation before. The moment when your all didn’t even give out the best result was the most heart-wrenching thing one person can handle.

There must be something that she can help with so Yachi ponders over this as she fidgeted with her hands for an idea before something popped up in her mind as she exclaimed. “I’ve got it!”

All heads turned towards Yachi who started explaining, “I’m sure the reason I got into the advanced classes was this sort of situation. I’ll train you guys until you both got over 80 points!”

Hinata and Kageyama went wide eyed and gaped at the blonde haired girl. “Yachi-san...”

On the other hand, Tsukishima who was watching the entire thing stood behind Hinata’s back as he fixed his bag on his shoulder. “Will you be able to do it? These two are certified idiots.” He says with smug looking expression.

“What was that?!” Kageyama scowled at Tsukishima while Hinata hissed the shared sentiment.

“I – I want to go to Tokyo with Hinata and Kageyama-kun for the away games too, so I’ll do my best!” Yachi responded with a spirited expression. “They have been looking forward to go to Tokyo all this time so it would be depressing if they can’t make it.”

Hinata and Kageyama sees the bright halo appeared behind Yachi as she looked at them with such hopeful expression. They were so touched that Hinata even started tearing up his eyes.

“Yachi-san!” Hinata bawled up, touched by her support.

Kageyama trembled in gratefulness that he shouts back, “Thank you very much!” passionately.

Yamaguchi slipped in and speaks up, “I’ll help out as much as I can too.” He offered gently. “It would be troubling for Yachi-san if she helps you two on her own.”

Yachi smiled brightly at the freckled boy’s support, beaming at him as he returned with his own smile to her.

“Thank you, Yamaguchi!” Hinata expressed his gratefulness as well in happy tone.

Nishinoya laughs by the whole spectacle as he stepped in. “Whoa now! I can’t let only my juniors take the spotlight. The second years are gonna help out to. Ain’t that right Chikara!” He turns the attention towards the second year boy.

Ennoshita could only smile tiredly as he shook his head by the libero’s boastfulness. “Well, the third years have to study for their own tests. Leave this these guys to the first and second years.” He said it towards the third years who were watching next to him.

“Sounds good. I’m counting on you.” Daichi says it with a face full of pride, happy to see his juniors getting along and supporting each other.

“Seems like an uphill battle though.” Sugawara commented.

“I probably won’t take any entrance exams but I don’t really have the confidence to be a teacher.” Asahi added.

As they were discussing this, Tsukishima was about to leave the store on his own. “I’ll be leaving first, excuse me.” He felt the stares of Hinata and Kageyama pierced his back, “I’m not lifting a finger. I told you I would only help you until the tests but give your best shot now. Goodbye.”

The whole team watches him leave the store with ease. Some of them were wishing that Tsukishima would stay around for a bit longer to help them but the case was not like that at all in reality.

“Damn you, stingyshima!” Hinata cursed under his breath.

Ennoshita then perked his head up when he noticed something. “Wait a minute, where is Tanaka?”

“He said he had something to do first so he went home earlier.” Nishinoya replied.

“I see. Well, let’s see what else we can do to help you both out.” Ennoshita turned to Hinata and Kageyama. “I’ve marked up all the wrong answers on your sheets so I really hope you both try to understand and learn again what went wrong with your answers.”

Both of the boys grumbled as they stared intensely at their answer sheets as if staring it hard enough would make it easier for them to know what they did wrong with their answers.

A clap took the whole team’s attention to the sound when Daichi smiled at them all with ease. “So, since it’s getting late we should all be heading home. Hinata, Kageyama – pour all your efforts to study on your own at home, okay.”

“Yes, captain.” Both of the boys replied solemnly.

With this, the whole team of the volleyball club were cleaning up and prepared to go home from Sakanoshita’s store. During their walk out of the store, Yachi was digging into her bag to take out her orange folder which was heavily decorated by star stickers, pulling out two exam sheets from it.

“Hinata, Kageyama-kun.” She calls them as she runs out to them outside of the store.

The two boys looked back to her, finally notices the papers she was holding out towards them.

“This is my answer sheet from my English test,” She hands it to Hinata, “- and this is my answer sheet from literature test. You can review my answers from the test and ah – do you both still keep the question papers from the exams?”

Both of the boys nodded, allowing Yachi to continue, “That’s a relief. Then when you review it at home tonight, please compare your answers with mine so you can figure out where you made mistakes. If you have any questions, you can message me as always.”

“Yo-you’re an angel, Yachi-san!” Hinata bawled into tears as he took Yachi’s hands in his and shook it with his expression of gratitude.

Meanwhile Kageyama’s eyes brightened up as he kept bowing to her repeatedly. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Yachi who was in the midst of being shaken by Hinata and embarrassingly bowed by Kageyama many times choked out, “I-it’s fine! P-please calm down…”

Both of the boys stopped their embarrassing actions, now looking at Yachi with a new light.

‘She is not just an angel, she’s a super kind and smart angel!’ Both of the boys looked at Yachi in awe as the halo they envisioned behind Yachi shone brighter than before and the imaginative flower petals fall around Yachi’s head.

Yachi’s cheeks flushed in pretty pink, embarrassed by the previous behavior of the two boys but she was a little touched by their feelings. “Let’s gather for another review at lunch time tomorrow at my class. Is that fine with you, Yamaguchi-san?”

Yamaguchi who was staring the whole thing with amusement in his eyes nodded. “I’m fine with that.”

“You both are the best! Yosh, I’m going to do my best too!” Hinata pumped his fists up to the night sky.

During the late night, Yachi accompanied Hinata and Kageyama through her phone as they kept texting each other messages to work on their studies. Through sleepy eyes after the boys ends their reviewing session, Yachi didn’t miss the messages that Hinata and Kageyama sent to her.

_From Hinata Shoyo:_

_Sent 23:_ _07 pm_

_Thank you for your help, Yachi-san ( >o<) I’ll see you tomorrow! Have a good night sleep! _

-

_From Kageyama Tobio_

_Sent 23:_ _16 pm_

_I’m sorry for making you sleep so late but I really appreciate your help, Yachi-san. Sweet dreams :)_

However, Yachi was too sleepy to give a reply as she held the phone in her hand. Her eyes closed swiftly and her tiredness lulled her to dreamland for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go, chapter 6 done! I've already plot down the next scenes after this so I really want to write down the entire thing but I gotta study because I have an exam soon and I haven't properly study for it (>-<) It would be totally bad if I don't do well since I really want to ace this test lol. I guess writing the characters on how they study so hard makes me want to study hard as well haha. 
> 
> I won't be updating a chapter until I do my exam so hopefully I can update the new chapters by next week. I have all of these ideas about Yachi interacting with many interesting characters from Haikyuu and since I still have the mood and motivation for it, I really just feel like writing it all down before my motivation left me. The last thing I want to do to this story is to abandon it so I hope that I can make it through the end of the chapters. 
> 
> By the way, this story will have alternate or multiple endings depending on the characters I will match Yachi with. I'm pretty sure the tags does spoil you all but I'm thinking of adding new people into the plot line as well for Yachi to end up with but I'll see whether it fits into the story or not. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading my story! Until next time! Stay safe!


	7. Chapter 7

At lunch time, Yachi and Yamaguchi helped Hinata and Kageyama with their studies after they finished eating their lunch boxes. Yachi frowned when she speaks up, “So close! You wrote _receive_ wrong. You almost got it right except you switched _i_ and _e_. It’s such an easy mistake to make.”

“Gah! If only I didn’t get that wrong!” Hinata stressfully ruffled his hair in frustration.

Kageyama, who was sitting on the opposite of Yamaguchi, dissed. “It’s no wonder why you suck at receiving because you can’t spell it correctly.”

“What was that?! Can you even spell it?!” Hinata growled back.

Kageyama pouted and looked aside, “Of course.” He grumbled.

However, his answer didn’t seem to convince Hinata that Kageyama was better than Hinata in English, so he asked Kageyama another question.

“Then what do you call ‘delayed timing attack’ in English?”

Kageyama stood straight up confidently as he answered Hinata. “ _Time…attack_.”

“Is this a quiz show?! You didn’t even translate the wording right!”

“How the hell would I know! Do you even know what that is?!” Kageyama retorted back angrily.

Hinata turned to Yachi, “Yachi-san?”

Yachi was a little surprised at the swift of attention on to her. “Um…right so it could be literally translated as… _delayed…time attack._ _Delayed time attack_ – eh? Is this the correct volleyball term in English though?” She finds herself question herself as well.

“Um. I’m pretty sure that this won’t come out in the exam so let’s not get too worried about that.”

“That’s true.” Yachi agreed to Yamaguchi’s wording before she turned to Hinata again. “But you’re getting better at spellings so you have to keep it up. At this rate I’m sure you can score above 40.”

Hinata and Kageyama faltered at Yachi’s words.

“The thing is, we were told that we can’t pass if we don't score at least above 80.” Hinata drawled with a tone of sadness.

“I-is that so?” Yamaguchi didn’t sound like he was confident again. Teaching Kageyama and Hinata was challenging because they couldn’t catch up with the theories as much as they can. Yamaguchi looked to Kageyama and hummed, “Maybe it’s an issue with comprehension?”

“Y-you both can do it!” Yachi exclaimed, “I know how much both of you are looking forward to going to Tokyo so you can’t give up now.”

“But at this rate…it doesn’t seem like we can score any better than 40.” Kageyama responded solemnly.

The rest of them faltered at Kageyama’s words. No matter how painful it was, it was true. It seemed like all the extra work Yachi and Yamaguchi offered to help didn’t put out better result even with the fact that Hinata and Kageyama were gradually getting better with their answers.

They only had a few days left until Saturday and the pace of their studying was still like this. It was getting worrisome.

But Yachi shook her head and looked to Hinata. “You said you wanted to become Little Giant, right? I’m sure Little Giant don’t give up halfway through their fight.”

“But this is studying. Isn’t it different?” Hinata replied, feeling a little stumped by Yachi’s words.

Yachi shook her head, “This is also another battle. The way to the top isn’t going to be smooth and easy. You’ll have some ups and downs along the way but the most important thing is that you can get through it. Looking at the goal is not enough because you also need a willpower.”

“Willpower?” Both Hinata and Kageyama muttered. Slowly falling into Yachi’s words.

Yachi nodded energetically. “You don’t hear heroes reaching to the top without some fighting, right? This is what you both are doing exactly right now. You’re training for your battle on Saturday. This is your willpower. To overcome the remedial and score 80 points.”

Yachi spoke out in such dramatic tone that Hinata and Kageyama were awed by her words. With their eyes sparkling with imagination, igniting the fire inside of them as they continue their study even harder.

“I promise you that I will show you the top of the summit as the next Little Giant, Yachi-san!” Hinata exclaimed excitedly as he raised his arms in the air for this proclamation.

Kageyama merely smirked at Hinata’s exclamation. “You can’t reach the top without me tossing to you, dumbass.”

Hinata glared back, “I was just saying!”

Yachi laughs, her voice sounded like twinkling summer bells that clears the uneasiness, not only in Hinata and Kageyama but Yamaguchi as well. She smiled brightly, eyes glimmering and her cheeks painted with lovely pink. The boys caught themselves off guard when they stared at her expression for a bit right then.

“I look forward to it, Hinata. And you too Kageyama, it wouldn’t be a fun training without you in Tokyo.”

Both boys grinned as they went back to bicker on their notes again. As Yachi follows along to their conversation, Yamaguchi watches Yachi with a soft expression on his face.

She really does spark people in the best way possible.

-

Yamaguchi thinks that Yachi is a never-ending-surprise human. She looked like a baby deer who was too uncomfortable in facing the volleyball team at first. Either because they were too tall or that she was too anxious to meet people. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but keep feeling the warmth spreading through his chest whenever a new side of Yachi exposed to him.

At first Yamaguchi thought that it was an exaggeration that he might have a small crush on her. He admitted that he thought she was cute when he first saw her. How could he deny it?

Soft blonde hair, pouty pink lips and soft looking eyes. She was like a daisy flower that somehow gives you the impression of freshness. She was really cute.

Not to mention that every time he spends more time with her and he gets to know her better, Yamaguchi really liked the way she talks. Her voice kind of sings when she rambles on longer than she usually does or the way she sometimes tries to fix starry hair pins on her head that adds up to her lovely image.

Man, she is cute.

Okay so maybe it wasn’t just a small crush but Yamaguchi didn’t really want to address it soon. He knew how troublesome it could be if Tsukki were to hear of this and would endlessly make fun of him by teasing the heck out of him whenever Yachi is around. He is pretty sure Tsukishima notices the way he glances at her way too often but Yamaguchi didn’t want to openly confess it yet.

That he really likes Yachi not because she was just cute.

So when the opportunity comes for him when he is alone with her, sometimes he really doesn’t know what to do. Like at this moment he’s facing right now.

He came to pick Yachi up so that they could go to Sakanoshita store together since Kageyama and Hinata already bolted out of school and on their way there to meet the second years, this time Yachi accepted his offer to go to the store with him.

But he was a little off guard to finds her dozing off on her desk in an empty classroom.

“Yachi-san?” He called out to her from the door before he stepped in.

Yachi still seemed like she was snoozing because he heard the soft breathing sound coming from her. He walked closer towards her and inspected that she really did fall asleep on her desk. The notes she has was still on her desk as well as her stationery. Yamaguchi softly chuckled at the drawings of small crows based on Hinata and Kageyama on her page.

Still, they need to go to Sakanoshita store to meet the others. But somehow at this moment he doesn’t want to wake her up. So Yamaguchi pulled a chair in front of Yachi’s desk and slowly sat down without making any loud noises. His inner gut tells him to let Yachi sleep for a few minutes longer, perhaps she was tired from helping the boys and also attending classes to study on her own.

“Tsukki was right. She does spoil them.” Yamaguchi speaks softly as he stares at Yachi.

He knows how much she goes out of her way to help the volleyball club. The recent practices she did as both candidate and official manager was taxing on her because she was not as athletic as the rest of the members in the team yet she did everything to catch up to them.

Yachi’s soft snoring could be heard in the classroom as they were only two of them. Yamaguchi can’t really describe what he’s feeling but as of right now, he feels content.

He stares at Yachi’s golden locks, her sparkling star hair pins, the squished cheek on her left side of the face against the desk as her arms were crossed above her head. Yamaguchi sees how long Yachi’s eyelashes were and how soft looking she seems when she snoozes off like this.

‘She’s pretty even when she’s sleeping.’ Yamaguchi mindlessly thinks as he gently pushed a falling stray of hair away from her face before he freezes. ‘What am I doing? I’m like a creep looking over her while she’s sleeping but she looks tired…but maybe it’s best to wake her up and go to the store.’

“Yachi-san?” Yamaguchi gently shakes off Yachi’s shoulder. The feeling of her shoulder against his hand felt warm and he tries to keep himself upright without crumbling.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long for Yachi to recover and woke up from her short nap. She blinks the sleepiness away from her eyes before she lifted up her head and realized that the classroom was empty and Yamaguchi was in front of her.

“How long was I asleep?” Yachi asked numbly.

Yamaguchi smiles, seeing her sleepy expression. “I don’t really know, Yachi-san. The school bell rang over over ten minutes ago.”

“Oh.” Yachi blinked before she rubs her eyes. “Oh no, are we late to Sakanoshita store?”

“It’s fine, Yachi-san. Being late won’t hurt besides you look like you needed that extra nap. Are you feeling alright?”

Seeing Yamaguchi all worried and concerned made Yachi flustered. “N-no, it’s okay. I just felt a little sleepy from the previous lesson so I might have dozed off unintentionally back there. Ah – we should probably go.”

Yamaguchi nodded as he watches Yachi packs up all her things before he added. “Don’t push yourself, Yachi-san. Your health is also important.”

“Right. Thank you, Yamaguchi-san.”

“Yamaguchi is fine.”

“T-then, you can call me Yachi too.”

Yamaguchi nodded as he stood up from the seat, “Okay. Let’s go to tutor the troublesome boys.”

Yachi laughs lightly at his words making Yamaguchi feels giddy at the feeling of hearing her laugh again. It was soft and sweet. He really liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I'm back with a new chapter since my test is over. This time we're looking at Yachi's developments with Yamaguchi. I've always loved Yamaguchi's softness towards Yachi so I thought about giving him more time with Yachi cause he seem to be on the same wavelength as Yachi sometimes :D


	8. Chapter 8

At the Sakanoshita store around evening hours, Yachi and Ennoshita were marking up Hinata’s and Kageyama’s papers carefully while the boys watched them with nervous eyes. Everyone else surrounded their table as they waited with anticipation, looking to see how much the freak duo improved over the past few days.

But once the examiners were both done with their grading, Hinata and Kageyama earned their papers back with uncertainty on their faces. Unfortunately, their worried expression had mirrored into their real marks because they haven’t reached the score of 80. With Hinata scoring 48 in English and Kageyama scoring 52 in literature.

Both boys gawked in shock at their papers, feeling their entire body frozen cold as their souls left their physical form.

“It’s no use.” Hinata cried to himself in sense of defeat with Kageyama mirroring his feelings when he slumped against the table.

Yachi stuttered through her comfort. “You just need to score a little higher. Just a mere 30 points.”

“That’s not a little bit though.” Ennoshita added solemnly.

“I’m so sorry Yachi-san. Everyone…you all tried your best on us.” Hinata drawled with hopeless defeat.

“Hinata, you can’t say that. Don’t give up!” Yachi raises her fists in the air to imitate an encouraging pose.

“Yeah…I’ll just ride my bike to Tokyo after all.” Hinata replied grimly.

This time it was Nishinoya who stepped and hit his hands on Hinata’s and Kageyama’s backs to cheer them up. “You have few days left! Stay strong!”

“He’s right! Let’s give our all! Right, Hinata? Kageyama-kun?” Yachi tries to cheer them up again. “You did well compare to your previous tests, I’m sure you can catch up if we do our best even harder. Right?”

Yachi and Nishinoya kept trying to cheer the freak duo but it seemed like all of their energy and motivation had been crushed so easily because they turned into stone after seeing their recent scores after their effort in studying. 

Tsukishima watches with irritation as he watched Yachi kept telling Hinata and Kageyama to ‘hold it there! Just a bit more, we can do it!’ her expression filled with both concern and determination that it was such a desperate expression that Tsukishima couldn’t stomach it any longer.

“It’s not going to work. Their spirits are completely broken.” Ennoshita announced.

“No…but senpai…” Yachi trailed off sadly.

Tsukishima walked towards Hinata and Kageyama and leaned down to look over their paper scores and scoffed. “I was wondering how far you guys were going to get but this is worse than I expected.”

Both Hinata and Kageyama flinched at the sharpness of Tsukishima’s voice. The blond haired boy slipped his hand through and grabbed the papers to inspect it closely.

“If your brains can’t even comprehend these textbook-level questions, you’re beyond help.” The smugness in his voice has woken up Hinata and Kageyama out of their stupor while Tsukishima continued.

“For modern literature all the answers are already in the text. I thought it would’ve been the perfect fit for such a simple-minded king. And English is just learning vocabulary! But I guess that’s too much for a monkey.”

Yachi gaped as she watches the spectacle in front of her, noticing how Hinata and Kageyama were now boiling with anger as Tsukishima continued to terror them with the painfully truths of the tests.

‘T-that’s Tsukishima for you…he’s not gentle at all even right now. Scary…’ Yachi gulped in fear at Tsukishima sharp remarks.

Tsukishima placed the papers down and chuckled lightly, “Ah looks like the training camp would be so much fun since the two of you aren’t going to be there. If you’d excuse me, I’ll be leaving now.” He says his last cents before he walks out of the store calmly with his face full of painted sarcasm.

As soon as Tsukishima stepped out of the store, the heat from the duo’s anger flared and burned as they yell in irritation while they kept on studying with anger. 

“Oh looks like they got a second wind.” Ennoshita commented.

Yamaguchi brightens, “Way to go Tsukki! He knows how to hype them up to properly study.”

“Like a blessing in disguise.” Yachi trailed.

“It was more like fighting fire with fire though.” Ennoshita drawled.

Yachi stayed over until the two boys finished with their studies, making sure that she answered any questions they had for her. After the studying session ended, the members of the volleyball team thanked Coach Ukai for letting them study at his place before they go back home.

Since they were studying later than usual, Hinata bounced to Yachi asking whether she needs to be accompanied with him on the way to her home.

“But our houses go in different direction, Hinata. I can walk myself back home, besides it’ll be quick.” Yachi reassured him.

“But it’s quite late. Even you’ve never accompanied our practices later than eight pm.” Hinata frowns, his face colored with worry then Hinata turned to Kageyama. “What about Kageyama?”

Kageyama stood quite as he looked back at them before he replied curtly. “I can accompany her back home.”

“Isn’t your house the same direction as mine?” Ennoshita spoke up, “You’ll walk even further if you go towards Yachi’s direction.”

“But I can accompany her.” Kageyama quickly retorted, suddenly finding himself embarrassed for rebutting his senpai’s words so quickly. His fingers found itself tugging to his collar, he faced aside as he tries to cool down the flushing burn on his cheeks and neck.

It was a good thing that it was night time or else everyone else will catch his embarrassed expression.

“I-it’s fine! I can walk back on my own.” Yachi says it again.

This time Yamaguchi stepped in. “Where is your house located at, Yachi?”

Yachi turned her head around, surprised to see Yamaguchi standing right next to her. Sometimes his height made her off guard because of how tall he was to loom over her.

Yachi tells him the area of her house and this time it seems that Yamaguchi decided on something. “Then I’ll accompany you on the way. My house is also closer to your area so we can walk back together.”

“Is that fine? I wouldn’t want to impose – “ as Yachi was about to say that she didn’t want to make trouble for others, Nishinoya stepped in and loudly claimed.

“How manly, Yamaguchi! You shouldn’t deny the offer, Yacchan. It would be safer if you have him to walk back with you. We don’t know what kind of troubles would come to cute girls like you at these time of hours so better be careful than never. Right, Yamaguchi?”

Yachi was a little struck that Nishinoya had chosen that nickname for her already but it seems that she knows to accept the offer by Yamaguchi to be safe. Besides, it was also late and she promised her mother that she’ll be home safe and sound even when she comes home later than usual.

“Okay. Thank you everyone, I will go with Yamaguchi on the way back home.” She replied.

Nishinoya smiles brightly and shows off his thumb up. “Yosh! Now that’s settled, let’s go back home!” then he bounces off quickly as Ennoshita follows him from behind.

Hinata sped up on his feet, dragging his bicycle, as he kept up walking beside Yachi’s right side. “Next time, I’ll accompany you back home too, Yachi-san!”

Yachi was a little bit confused by his offer that he somehow worded it out with determination and fire in his eyes while his eyes shift to Yamaguchi momentarily. “Uh…sure.”

On the other hand, Kageyama scowled and spoke up as he walked with them, “You can also go with me, Yachi-san. If you want to.” He quipped momentarily.

Somehow this made Hinata turned his head back towards Kageyama and glared at him. “Well I was the first one to offer!”

“Your house isn’t even in the same direction, idiot!” Kageyama barked back.

“What’d you say?!” Hinata growled.

Yachi felt exhausted looking at the two of them fight again. ‘How much energy do they have even after studying for so long?’

Soon most of them parted ways in different streets and areas, leaving Yamaguchi and Yachi to walk together on their way back home. Since they already entered the main streets, the atmosphere was brighter.

It was awkward in the silence between them but somehow not painful. Yachi didn’t feel like she can talk a lot because frankly she was quite exhausted after teaching Hinata and Kageyama from lunch time and after school that she has only few energies left. But she didn’t want to make Yamaguchi uncomfortable with the frozen air between them so she was trying to make up something for conversation.

“Quite a long day, huh?” Yamaguchi started.

Yachi perked up, surprised that the boy was the one to start the conversation. “Uh y-yeah. It was quite a long day.”

Yamaguchi smiles faintly, “You even took a nap through the end of the school too. You must be feeling really tired.”

Yachi shakes with embarrassment. “A-ah! You remembered it. Um…somehow I fell asleep during the last period.”

“You know…you aren’t actually required to help them that much. Even Tsukishima helped them until the exams.”

“I know. But I have to do it. It’s not just for them…it’s for the team as well.” Yachi says.

Yamaguchi’s lips widen into a full blown smile. “You’re a good manager, Yachi-san. You always think what’s best for the team. It was also you wasn’t it? The one to put up the donation posters throughout the area?”

“Yes. Even though my skills are still not that great but I’m grateful that we managed to have some funds through the donation. I realized that my power as a manager can come through in other ways. I want to be great like Shimizu-senpai.”

He chuckles, finding her words a little amusing. “What do you mean? You’re already great enough.”

Through the compliment, she felt her heart beats faster a little. It was unfair that Yamaguchi was saying it with such a bright face and soft smile that made her heart go a little strange. Yachi bit her lips in shyness and unconsciously pulled her hair locks behind her ear.

“T-thank you. Although I still have a lot to learn.” She replies before she adds, “I’m sorry. I know your words are genuine but…somehow…”

“It’s hard to accept them in your mind? Yes, I know that feeling.”

Yachi slows down her pace as she looks at Yamaguchi with wide eyes. Was he able to read her mind too?

Yamaguchi laughs lightly at her expression. “I can’t read minds but you are like an open book sometimes, Yachi.” He smirks lightly which was somehow more of a rare expression for Yachi because she rarely sees him making such faces around her before.

He continued, “You don’t need to think over it too much. I know that sounds so cheesy but you’ll eventually know that it’s best to acknowledge that you’re also capable of things that surprise yourself at times.”

Yachi wonders whether Yamaguchi had faced a similar position like hers too if he says these kinds of words. “You went through something similar too?”

Yamaguchi nodded, rubbing his shoulder. “Yeah. When I was in elementary school, I used to get bullied a lot because of my freckles. I guess during those years it made me become weaker in my mental state. It was years ago but…the damage is still here no matter how many times I try to be better.”

“But…are you all better now?” She asked curiously.

Yamaguchi turns to her, his eyes glinted with a coldness that Yachi couldn’t describe but she was familiar with. “It takes time to get all better but it’s certainly way better than the worst days. Sometimes it’s hard to move on from silly things that should be considered normal but your brain can’t help but overthink on little simple things that makes you question yourself. _Am I doing this right? Did I offend them too much?_ ”

Yamaguchi shifted the straps of his backpack on his shoulder, “But it’ll be fine in the end you grow up and learn that your wounds become scars and it doesn’t hurt as bad anymore. You’ll learn that accepting the good points people comment about you is far more content than denying them all. It gets tiring when we underestimate ourselves.”

Yachi felt like this was the longest conversation they had outside of school and volleyball. Yachi bit her lip before she spoke, “Why are you telling me this, Yamaguchi?”

Yamaguchi stops his steps and turned to her fully. “You seem to be the type of person to encourage other people a lot but not yourself so I wanted to be the person to encourage you.”

“Yamaguchi…” Yachi was astonished, he was thinking for her that far. He was such a nice person, how sweet. Yachi felt her face flushing by his words. She let out a shy smile and spoke out. “Thank you for being so nice Yamaguchi.”

“Anytime for a friend.”

-

_From Yachi Hitoka:_

_Sent 20:_ _58 pm_

_Thank you for walking me back home, Yamaguchi :D Good night!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just speculated that Kageyama's not really subtle with expressions and feelings about Yachi, the poor boy must be confused about his feelings lmao meanwhile Hinata just sees everything as competition (for this time hehheehe).
> 
> Tsukishima would be the type of person who indirectly cares for someone but at the moment he's just annoyed that Yachi is doing too much for the freak duo and risks her time for them haha
> 
> I feel like out of all the first years, Yamaguchi is the first one to be able to be close to Yachi emotionally thorough about their worrisome-mindset(?) like Yamaguchi was known to be bullied when he was younger and he knows how hard that mental scars can impact on the person even when time passes so yeah - Yachi's getting help from her friends is important!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Yachi received a shopping list from Shimizu and Takeda-sensei for the stay away games in Tokyo. According to Yachi’s observation, she also needed to buy some several things for the team to help them get through future trainings and matches. If they have to go on full head-to-head with other powerhouses of volleyball teams, then Karasuno should be prepared 100%.

So with bunch of lists in her phone, Yachi manages to go to the supermarket after school to buy things according to the shopping list. Food and medicine, it seems that those are the things needed the most for the stay away game. Unfortunately, Yachi could only find several things at the supermarket so she had to go to another store in the other side of the neighborhood to get the rest of things.

“Rolling tape and some eye drops. Oh, I almost forgot to buy the ice packs – there are a lot of things that I need to buy here.” Yachi muttered as she looked on her phone to read off from her shopping list.

She heads towards the food isles where she needed to buy some snacks for the team. She knew how much the second years liked eating seaweed chips and the third years mentioned to her that they wanted some gummies for their trip. Yachi was off to find some of the mentioned snacks first before she moved elsewhere.

She was so distracted by the isles while she searches to find where the gummies packs were that she accidentally bumped into someone when she moves along the isle in concentration.

“S-sorry!” She apologized instantly when she bumped into the other person. Her heart stopped momentarily when she looked up to see who she had bumped.

A spiky dark haired tall boy with a menacing face, wearing the jersey of the Aoba Johsai volleyball uniform.

‘Hieeee!!’ Yachi internally screamed as she recognized the name of the school and the colors. ‘The school that the team recently fought against the last match!’

“I’m s-sorry!” She apologized again, wavering a little.

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t see you there.” He replied calmly. He then sees her pale expression and her eyes darting to the jersey of his uniform. Perhaps this timid little girl seems to know who he is or at least, the team he plays for.

“I-it’s fine. It’s probably my fault for being too short.” Yachi replied and shut herself up. Hitting her brain internally and screaming to herself ‘Why did I say that?!’

Somehow her comment made the other guy chuckle. ‘Eh? He found it funny?’

“That’s funny.” He says softly before he moves aside, “Sorry for bumping to you.”

After he says that, he moves aside and looked to the other part of the shelves. Perhaps he’s also looking for some specific snack as well. Yachi was about to move away when she spotted the pack of gummies that she had been looking for.

The problem was that the pack of gummies was quite high – right on the top shelves where she can’t really reach them without jumping like a bunny.

‘I just need to grab two packs.’ She then tries to stand on her toes as she reaches her arm towards the top shelves and grab the gummies packs on the edge of the shelves. It was getting quite difficult because she finds herself huffing and jumping to grab it but she only manages to touch it with the tips of her fingers only.

Then, a shadow suddenly looms over her and an arm stretched out towards the pack of gummies that she wanted to take. Yachi was so startled that she yelped at the sudden hand coming from above her and she turned around quickly to find the Aoba Johsai spiky dark haired boy reaching for it.

He was standing right behind her with his tall figure looming over her. From her height she was able to see the broad shoulders and the long neck shown towards her before he looked down at her fully. His eyes sharp and clear, a familiar expression she often sees on the captain of Karasuno’s volleyball team.

Yachi’s heart started pounding hard on to her chest and she finds herself feeling embarrassed over this whole moment. She was also caught off guard by their distance and his face to which Yachi was startled to find that he was indeed quite charming.

“You need this?” He manages to grab two packs of them and hand it over to Yachi.

Yachi was so startled by his previous action that she wasn’t able to say anything remotely after a few seconds of his question.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and answer him, only a high pitched sound of a hiccup came out instead.

‘So embarrassing!’ Yachi felt her entire face bursting with redness down to her neck as she made a grimacing expression while she covers her lips with her hands.

The other boy seemed to be surprised by the sudden sound that came out of her mouth but it cleared up his confusion when another hiccup came out of her again despite how much she tries to suppress her sound with her hands on her lips.

Yachi didn’t notice as the other guy, who started watching her, finds himself zoning his eyes onto her as he inspects every part of her face.

A small girl who looks like she’s the size of a duckling with blonde hair and cute starry pins on her hair while she looks up to you with her dolly brown eyes, his heart was also hammering against his chest in rapid heartbeats.

‘C-cute.’ He found the word echoing in his brain as he watches Yachi with her face flushed in adorable pink and face puffed into lovely embarrassed expression.

Yachi’s hiccups keep on continuing but she manages to voice out her words despite her hiccups. “Thank – you. I’m so – sorry for – bothering you.”

“N-not at all.” He steps back once he gave her the pack of gummies. “Are you alright?”

“It’s – o-okay. W-was just – surprised.” Yachi replied with her hiccups again.

“Iwa-chan!”

The two of them turned to where the newcomer’s voice came from. Yachi’s eyes widened again when she sees three other boys who wore similar jerseys as the boy who stood in front of her.

‘T-tall!’ She finds herself staring at them with bewilderment at their height.

There was one with the styled-curly brown hair with handsome features who looked over to them with perplexed expression. The other two boys had similar expression, one with strangely shortcut dark pink hair and another one with short-spiky cut dark brown hair.

Yachi’s hiccups came out again from her lips as she covers her mouth with her hands again. And somehow her action made the three boys on the other side of the isle stared at her and the boy in front of her with caution eyes.

“Oi, oi – Iwaizumi. Did you do something to her?” The dark pink haired boy said.

The boy who was standing in front of her was called Iwaizumi, Yachi figured out. “I didn’t do anything illegal!” He replied back sharply, already disliking the thoughts that went through his friends’ heads.

“Iwa-chan! You shouldn’t bully girls who are way smaller than you.” The curly brown haired on commented with a pout as walked over to them. He then looks at Yachi with bright eyes and smiled at her with a charming look, “Are you okay, little birdy?”

Yachi who finds herself way in more trouble than she thought she would be, hiccups again, but managed to word out excuses. “I’m sorry – sorry for bothering you. T-thank you for the – gummies. Excuse – me.”

And she was able to slip out from them and ran away.

“Ah there she goes. You scared her too much, Iwa-chan.”

“Shut up, shittykawa!” Iwaizumi barked in annoyance.

-

Yachi managed to buy all the things she needed so all she had to do was to head home and pack for the trip. She carries the groceries bags on her hands and felt regretful that she wasn’t as athletic as the others so she has to carry the bags with short breaks to rest her hands on the way back home.

Unknown to her, Yachi was left in a hurry that she didn’t realize when one of her starry pins fell from her hair and dropped on the ground on the entrance of the store.

Iwaizumi managed to pick up the familiar looking starry pin from the ground and inspected it closely. Remembering the same pin that he stared previously on the timid looking blonde haired girl with the dazzling eyes he met earlier.

“Did you pick up a toy, Iwaizumi? You’re such a kid.”

“Shut up Matsukawa.” Iwaizumi grumbled as he kept the starry pin in his hand.

Oikawa zoomed in closer to him and grabbed the starry pin, “Hm? What is that?”

“Nothing.” Iwaizumi shakes off Oikawa from his hand but the other boy seemed to smile wider at his best friend’s action.

“ _Ara ara…_ are you trying to keep secrets about the girl you met earlier from me?” Oikawa said in a mischievous tone. “I know you had it in you, Iwa-chan!”

The dark haired spiky boy greeted his teeth in annoyance and hit Oikawa’s butt with his leg, making the other boy flinched in pain from his bottom. “Ack! Iwa-chan, that hurts!”

-

On Friday night at Karasuno high school, the volleyball team gathered to prepare for their trip to Tokyo. Yachi was helping Kiyoko with loading the bags and their necessities while trying to re-check everything.

“We just need to carry our personal bag along with the bag that carries the first aid kit. We’re done for now, you can go to the bathroom if you want before we go.” Kiyoko says as she puts the last bag inside the bus.

“It’s okay. I already went.” Yachi replied.

“Good. I’m going to go there now. Make sure to stay around so you don’t miss the bus.”

“Yes, senpai.”

As soon as the older manager left, Yachi spotted Hinata and Kageyama who was watching them all with a look of gloom on their face. Yachi hops over to them and greeted, “Hello. Everything okay?”

“Yachi-san! Do you need help with everything else?” Hinata asked.

Yachi shook her head, “Everything set up now. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes I think.”

“Is that so.” Hinata trailed off sadly as he looks beyond Yachi and looked at the view with regret.

“You both are going to ace the remedial and catch us up in Tokyo sooner than you think. Right, Hinata? Kageyama-kun?”

Hinata’s face brightened at her words as he gave her a thumbs up. “Of course! We’re going to ace it and make it to Tokyo! We’ll be as fast as lightning!”

Yachi laughs at Hinata’s expression of words. “I’ll look forward to your arrival.”

“You better live up to your words, idiot.” Kageyama commented.

“Who says that I won’t, huh?!” Hinata sneered back.

As they both face off each other with rowdy expressions, Tsukishima passed by and commented, “Can you both even mark at least 80 points with short days studying for the remedial tomorrow? What a joke.”

His words seemed to hit the two boys in a bad nerve and they both instantly slumped over the words with dark expressions.

“Hinata? Kageyama-kun?” Yachi called them in hopes to lift them away from their cloudy look.

At this moment, Tanaka stepped in and leaned over to the boys. “Come on guys! What’s with the gloom and doom look?” He spoke out as he patted on their shoulders. “Just pass your exam tomorrow and let your savior I organized to come and drive you.”

“You both worked really hard so it’ll be okay.” Ennoshita added after Tanaka.

Nishinoya makes a fist pump towards them, “Force your way through with guts!”

“Do your best!” Yachi finds herself cheering them as well.

Coach Ukai came together with Takeda-sensei and Kiyoko, calling them all to board the bus now as they were leaving.

Daichi turns to freak duo for the last time, “Well then, we’ll be waiting for you both in Tokyo.”

“Yes.” Hinata and Kageyama saluted gloomily.

The rest of the members started to board on the bus while being watched by Hinata and Kageyama. At this moment, Yachi suddenly turns around and head towards the boys as she let out something out of the pocket of her backpack.

“Hinata. Kageyama-kun. These are for you.” She says as she gives them each a box of pocky with different flavors. “Good luck for tomorrow!”

She smiles brightly, face full of encouragement as they boys nodded in return to her gift. Yachi turns around to board on to the bus and took her sat next to Kiyoko and waved at Hinata and Kageyama as the bus drives away.

Kageyama was the first one to look at the pocky and turned the box around to find a message written on the back of it. Hinata noticed Kageyama reading something on the back of his pocky box and also followed him as he turns his own pocky box in his hand.

_SEE YOU IN TOKYO, LITTLE GIANT!_

“Kageyama.” Hinata started.

“Hn?”

Hinata’s eyes were glued on the writings of Yachi’s message. An ambitious fire lit up in his eyes. “Let’s do this. We’re going to Tokyo.”

“Damn straight we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise surprise three chapters at once! also another surprise, it's the aoba johsai boys making their debut in my fanfiction lol
> 
> anyways I wanted to point out that on the back of the pocky box and there's like a white empty space, yeah that's where you can write messages and stuff but i don't think this is for every pocky boxes though. I used to send messages with my friends through pocky boxes like at school and stuff cause it's cute and it's chocolate so it's a bonus haha
> 
> oh i just want to let my readers know that I won't be updating as much as i can but i'm still going to try and update every time i write the chapters. i recently got an internship so i don't know whether i have enough time updating my fic but i won't abandon this story but i want to give a quick message for the future in case you're all wondering why i don't update for so long.
> 
> please give me your thoughts about what you think Yachi will do at Tokyo? I've planned out that she's going to meet all my faves but I want to hear your thoughts and opinions as well.
> 
> Thank you for reading until this far! See you all in the next chapter!


	10. Chapter 10

Since the bus will reach to Tokyo the next morning, Yachi tried to sleep comfortably at the bus but finds herself unable to sleep. Perhaps it was nerves that she finds it difficult to sleep right away. She even brought a neck pillow to make herself comfortable.

She looked to the side where she saw Kiyoko already fast asleep while wearing her sleeping mask as she sleeps with her arms crossed as her head leaned against the window. Yachi tries to copy Kiyoko’s sleeping position hoping to fall asleep as well but finds herself getting irritated that she’s not falling asleep.

Then Takeda-sensei announced that they will be stopping for a bit a resting area so that the members can stretch their legs and go to the bathroom if needed. Yachi shakes Kiyoko gently. “Senpai, we’re stopping at a resting area. Do you want to go to the bathroom?”

Kiyoko shifted from Yachi’s voice and lifted the sleeping mask while giving Yachi a tired smile, “Sorry, Yachi-chan. I don’t feel like going to the bathroom yet but do you need to go?”

Yachi shook her head, “No. But I’m going to stretch my legs out. Sorry for disturbing you, senpai.”

“Don’t worry. Take your time.” Kiyoko said.

Yachi walked out of the bus and finds herself breathing the cool night air as she stretches her arms up. Sitting for a few hours was already making her feel stiff and what was worse is that she can’t fall asleep properly.

‘Maybe it’s the environment? It’s hard to fall asleep in the bus.’

“Yachi-chan! How is it going?”

Yachi turned and saw Sugawara walked towards her. “Sugawara-senpai. Um…I’m just stretching a little bit before I go back in.”

“That’s good. Is everything alright? Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

Yachi shook her head, “Everything is alright. I already went to the bathroom before we left so I want to stay here for a bit longer.”

Sugawara hummed as he watches Yachi putting her hands in the pocket of her cardigan. “You were fidgeting in your seat throughout the entire ride so I thought you wanted to go to the bathroom.”

Yachi’s cheeks flushed and Sugawara chuckled at her reaction.

“R-really? Do I seem like I was moving around too much?” Yachi felt embarrassed as she explained, “I was trying to sleep but it’s not working so well.”

The night wind was blowing a little colder than usual. Yachi rubs her hands inside her pockets in hopes to make it warmer.

Sugawara unzips his jacket and then takes it off, surprising Yachi when he puts it around her. “If you can’t sleep then maybe you need to drink some warm tea?”

“I-it’s fine, Sugawara-senpai. You’re going to be cold!” Yachi tries to reject gently to Sugawara’s jacket but he only smiled at her softly and put the jacket on her properly.

“I don’t want our cute manager to get sick when we reach Tokyo.” He commented with a light tone as he walked in closer and zipped up the jacket. Finding Yachi slightly buried in his jacket which was a little big on her, making her small head popped out of the jacket cutely with the sleeves going over her hands.

“Th-thank you, Sugawara-senpai.” Yachi thanked him as he brushes her golden locks away from the collar of his jacket and pinched her soft cheeks with his hands. “But you’ll be cold…”

“I’m wearing a sweater so I don’t feel too cold.” Sugawara replied as he lets go of Yachi’s cheeks and poked it repeatedly instead. Feeling content on playing with her soft chubby cheeks that made him want to keep touch her for a little longer.

Then Daichi came over, with Asahi and Ennoshita, and bumped Sugawara’s head with his fist. “Stop that, Suga.”

“Eh – but her cheeks are incredibly soft, Dachi. Look – _mochi~ mochi~”_ Sugawara pinched Yachi’s cheeks with both of his hands and stretched it, making Yachi’s face looked a little strange but really adorable.

Her clear brown eyes widened in confusion and the light pink tinted her skin. Sugawara felt like he was playing with a face of a baby hamster and he couldn’t help but feel the mushy feelings inside his chest when he plays around with Yachi like this.

“Stop it, you’re going to make her cry.” Asahi’s voice wavered in worried tone and pulled Sugawara’s hands away from Yachi’s cheeks.

“Why do you sound like you’re the one who is going to cry?” Daichi commented.

Sugawara pouted in return but stopped touching Yachi’s cheeks. “Tch, you guys are no fun. You’ll also get addicted to Yachi’s cheeks when you touch it once.”

Ennoshita chuckles, then taking out a can of warm tea from his bag and hand it to Yachi. “Warm up with this, Yachi-san.”

“Thank you, Ennoshita-senpai.” Yachi thanked him as Ennoshita smiles and lightly patted Yachi’s head for a moment.

Then two newcomers came in a blur as they rushed towards Yachi’s side. “What is it? Is Yachi-chan sick? That won’t do, right Ryuu?” Nishinoya came and looked over to Yachi’s left side to inspect her.

“Kiyoko-san is going to kill us if we let our precious Yachi get sick.” Tanaka replied dramatically before he asked directly to the shorter girl.

“Yachi-chan, are you feeling sick? Do you need medicine? Do you need me to carry you back to the bus?” Tanaka rambled on but cut short when Daichi hit his head lightly.

“Stop crowding her like that, you idiots.” Daichi scolded.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry about me.” Yachi replied quickly to avoid some misunderstanding. She feels incredibly touched that the members of the team worry her like that. She slowly felt like she was a part of the team.

“Kids! We’re leaving soon, please get inside!” Takeda-sensei called from a far and soon the rest of the members walked back to the bus.

Nishinoya kept asking Yachi whether she need any help from him but Yachi thanked him that she was alright. It took a few tries to make him sure that she was okay before he patted her head warmly and went to his own seat.

Yachi went back to her seat and waits as the bus leaves. She took a moment to drink the warm tea she received from Ennoshita.

She settled down comfortably with Sugawara’s jacket, surprisingly finding herself getting sleepier as time passes by. It didn’t take too much time but Yachi drifts off to the scent of Sugawara’s smell from his jacket as she fell asleep right away. His jacket smells of fresh grass and fabric softener. A boyish smell.

Sugawara momentarily looked back from his seat to look at Yachi, who was sleeping in his jacket, snoozing cutely like a baby chick puffed with a comfortable-looking jacket. He smiles at the scene and let his expression becomes softer as he watches Yachi sleeping.

He didn’t regret giving the smaller girl his jacket because now he felt a sense of pride blooming in his chest when he saw her like that.

“Yacchan is so cute.” He muttered softly.

-

The next morning, she woke up, Coach Ukai announced that they’ll be arriving at Nekoma in a few minutes. Yachi stretched from her sleep and cleans her face with a face-wipe from her bag to wake her sleepy eyes.

“Did you sleep well?” Kiyoko asked from the side.

“Hn. What about you, senpai?”

“It was okay.”

“We’re here!” Takeda-sensei cheerfully announced.

Yachi watches as the bus entered a school and sees several buildings from afar. The bus parked in the parking lot and stopped. Everyone took their belongings and head out of the bus. Yachi followed the rest of the team and hops out of the bus with her bag.

The school was bigger than Karasuno, it was the first thing that Yachi noticed. They seem to be at the back of the school area at the parking lot. The scenery also didn’t look too different from Miyagi too.

There were several boys and adults who seems to be from Nekoma and Yachi watches as both Karasuno and the host, Nekoma, came to greet each other. Yachi tries not to cringe when Tanaka and Nishinoya screamed excitedly at a transmission tower thinking that it was a skytree.

She already took off her jacket and walked to Sugawara to give it back.

“Senpai, thank you for lending me your jacket. I’m sorry if it’s dirty.”

Sugawara laugh lightly when he takes the jacket from Yachi’s hand. “What are you saying? It’s not dirty at all. Don’t worry too much about it.” He finishes it off by giving Yachi a soft squish to her cheek again making Yachi only smile in defeat.

Daichi then called the managers to which Yachi came to his call and saw another guy standing next to him. The first thing she noticed about him was his hair. Jet black, spiked upwards messily – it gave her the impression of a styled-bed-hair-look.

“These are our managers. Shimizu, I’m sure you know her from our previous practice. This is Yachi, our new manager. Girls, this is Kuroo Tetsurou, captain of the Nekoma volleyball team.”

Said Kuroo gave a light bow and an easy smile. “Hello, I’m Kuroo.”

“Hello.” Kiyoko greeted politely.

“My name is Yachi Hitoka. Nice to meet you.” Yachi followed her senpai’s greeting.

When Yachi straightened up from her bow, she was caught off guard by the eyes of Kuroo staring on to her with a look she can’t describe on his face before he eased it out with a friendly smile.

“Shimizu-san and Yachi-chan, right? It’s great that you girls are here. Our training is currently short on supporting staff so having new managers is going to be very helpful.” Kuroo began, “Our training camp usually have the managers rotating to a schedule so that every team gets full support throughout the training camp. It might sound troublesome but I hope you can cooperate with us.”

“We’ll have to brief our advisor and coach first.” Kiyoko replied.

“That’s fine with me. The rest can be explained by the managers from Fukurodani and Ubugawa.” Kuroo nodded.

Kiyoko hummed, “I see. Thank you for the information, Kuroo-san.”

Kuroo gave another smile and turned, “Well, come on in. We’ll show you the areas first before you guys can join the practice.”

Kuroo began explaining to the three of them as they walked about the basics of the training camp, how they usually practice, and where the places are located. Just as Yachi was listening attentively to his explanation, a sudden yell startled her when she sees a Nekoma uniformed member drops to his knees dramatically when he sees Yachi and Kiyoko.

“Th…they’ve got two managers now! They got a pretty one and a cute one!” He cried out as if he had been stabbed with a knife to his statement.

Kiyoko moves in front of Yachi to protect her in case anything happened. Yachi on the other hand watched the spectacle in front of her with a shocked expression.

‘That guy has a Mohawk…as expected, Tokyo is intense.’

Somehow Tanaka came in with an air of superiority as he stood before the other guy. “Do you see Tora? This is what Karasuno’s true ability is like.”

“So bright!” Tora yelled out.

Tanaka laughs out in giddiness, somehow happy by the new difference that Karasuno has two managers now. Yachi was confused by this whole thing so Kiyoko spent no time to waste and dragged Yachi out of the situation.

“Let’s go.” The older manager said and led Yachi elsewhere.

Kuroo and Daichi watched with amused expression before the Nekoma captain turned to him, “It’s really fortunate that you got two managers, Daichi-san.”

Daichi replied diplomatically. “We’re lucky to have them.”

Kuroo chuckled, “Best to get used to that sort of reactions around here. We’re a little bit dramatic, you see.”

Daichi’s smile twitched in annoyance. His big brother instincts are starting to power on, hoping he’s fast enough to guard off any weirdoes bothering over Yachi and Kiyoko.

From behind, Sugawara and Asahi watched the whole spectacle as well.

Asahi spoke, “Somehow we become high specs because of our managers.”

Sugawara snickered in reply. “Our managers are pretty dazzling after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I made it through this week!
> 
> My internship position somehow turned into a full position so I'm now officially hired (which is kind of weird) and the job was very difficult. Basically this was my first ever official job so I faced so many difficulties this week. But that's okay - I have to learn properly so I can do my job better in the future. 
> 
> During my first week of work, I managed to write down the chapters. It was difficult writing them at night when I'm dead tired and sleepy but writing Yachi was the best way for me to feel happy and content because work was so difficult that I needed some happy time for myself at night before bed. 
> 
> Yachi finally gets to Tokyo! And she met Kuroo and Tora haha. Kuroo is a bit strange here hehehe but I also included something soft with Suga-senpai because he's so cute! I also like the idea of Yachi wearing a boy's jacket because come on...it's so adorable! 
> 
> Thank you for reading this far!


	11. Chapter 11

Yachi and Kiyoko went to the girl’s dorm, which was really just a classroom turned into a dorm, as they introduced themselves with the other managers from the other schools. Two managers from Fukurodani and a manager from Ubugawa.

“My name is Suzumeda Kaori, you can call me Kaori. She is Shirofuku Yukie. We're third year managers from Fukurodani school.” A long brown haired girl introduced herself and her co-manager, who gave a sleepy smile towards Yachi and Kiyoko.

“Call me Yukie.”

“My name is Miyanoshita Eri! I’m a third year manager from Ubugawa.” A bright girl with twintails introduced herself. “You can call me Eri, it’s easier that way.”

Kiyoko introduced herself and Yachi afterwards. The girls settled down as the other managers began explaining the information regarding to the schedule of the training camp and how they will share work with each other for clean-up duty and kitchen duty. Yachi wrote down any important info as Kaori explains all of the details regarding to their managerial duties.

“We also have rotations but that starts tomorrow so you don’t have to worry about that today. But tonight, one of you will be set up for kitchen duty.” Kaori explained.

“That can be settled. Yachi-chan, you’re up for it?” Kiyoko turned to the shorter girl.

“Hn? Y-yeah, I can.” She replied. “I’m not a great chef but I can cook.”

“That’s a relief, we wouldn’t want another mishap in the kitchen again.” Kaori commented happily. “I’m really glad you girls are here. We didn’t have enough manpower to support the teams during last year’s training camp so I was afraid that we wouldn’t have additional help.”

“Especially since the teams are serious about going to nationals, they practice at crazy hours too. We need to catch up to them in order to support them well. Ah – speaking of crazy practice, anything we should know about from Karasuno?” Eri asked.

“We probably need some space for individual trainings.” Kiyoko replied.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Nekoma has a few gyms so that shouldn’t be a problem.” Kaori replied, “Unless you need privacy or something.”

“Does Karasuno has some tricks or special attacks to practice as well? I’m curious about it because the Nekoma members kept talking about amazing quicks.” Eri piped in.

Yachi smiled sheepishly, “I wouldn’t lie that we don’t have some sort of strategies. It’s sort of hard to explain it.”

Kiyoko gave a small nod. “It is. You will have to see it with your own eyes when you watch our team play. What about your team? Anything important for us to note?”

“Everything is pretty normal in our team except for our Ace’s annoying mindset sometimes.” Yukie replied.

“Oh! Recently our team practice serves pretty hard. For every end of the practice each player must serve for about 100 times.” Eri noted.

Yachi flinched, “100?!”

“Eh…really?” Kiyoko even found herself surprised.

“Yup! So you all must be ready for our team’s serves in the future!” Eri chirped.

-

After the girls talked, they met with an advisor from Fukurodani who gave them a schedule for their duties and rotations. Since they already informed other advisors about this, there seems to be no problem to the schedule.

Yachi was surprised that she’ll be having to rotate for Nekoma and Fukurodani before rotating back to Karasuno for the entire week. Kiyoko saw her expression and turned to support her that Yachi will do great with the other teams as well. What is most important is to be able to support the team in the way she can and try not to intervene with their flow too much.

Yachi nodded, taking all of the advices from Kiyoko.

The girls were told to share each other’s number in case anything would happen.

-

Yachi joined with the others when they head inside the gym. She felt it as soon as she enters the room and felt like all eyes were placed on to the team. Yachi knows how serious these people were in their practice because Yachi could already spotted some powerful spikes and serves, the sound echoes loudly to her ears and Yachi couldn’t help but flinched in surprise at the thundering sound of balls smacking against the floor loudly.

“Amazing…” Yachi muttered as she looked around the gym, seeing the different players from different school play in such vigorous intensity.

Kiyoko chuckles lightly at Yachi’s reaction, “It sure is a different view. Seeing all of the well-known volleyball teams together.”

Yachi flinched when she spotted a guy, she was judging that he was the libero, for his quick and agile move when he was able to save a ball at the edge of the court and returning it back to the setter. “Counter!” He yelled, brushing away his pale brown locks away from his eyes.

‘How quick!’ Yachi’s eyes widened, ‘How can he receive a powerful spike without getting his arms chopped off?’

Another shows of a tall haired guy who did a jump serve powerfully that Yachi was able to hear the ball smacked against the other court’s floor hardly that her ears cringed at the sound. ‘H-how? That was so loud!’ Her heart hammered in surprise.

“Let’s go, Yachi-chan.” Kiyoko nudged Yachi out of her haze before she follows the other manager to help the team prepare for practice today. Karasuno team will be facing Shinzen for their first match at the nearest court. As Yachi prepares for the water bottles and towels, somehow there was something chilling she felt from her back.

Yachi looked up and turned to see if there was anything strange around her but she managed to catch a pair of dark eyes, from the other side of the gym, staring at her entire being. She recognized him as Kuroo, the captain of the Nekoma team. Yachi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she wondered why he had been staring at her but everything else seemed to stop briefly when he suddenly gave her a smirk when he sees her staring back at him.

Yachi blinked rapidly, feeling her heart suddenly felt like it was leaping out of her chest when she saw the way his lips tugged to the side in a mischievous smile. ‘What was that…’ Yachi wondered and tried to look away from him but then he surprised her again when he gave her a wave.

Yachi blinked owlishly, looking around her and sees that she was the only one looking at him. She looked back at him then pointed a finger to herself as if she was asking ‘Me?’

Kuroo nodded and smiled wider, then he mouthed something like _“Good luck, Karasuno-chan.”_

‘What was that about?’ Yachi was a little confused to why he suddenly interacted with her from a far and the thing was that they weren’t even on an actual speaking terms yet.

As if he sensed the confusion from her face, he mouthed again, _“You will be our manager for tomorrow.”_

Yachi widened her eyes, finally recognizing what he meant. According to the managers’ rotation schedule, Yachi was assigned as Nekoma’s manager tomorrow. Perhaps Kuroo wanted to talk to her about something before she became their temporary manager.

Yachi nodded and mouthed back, _“Do you want to speak about tomorrow with me, Kuroo-san?”_

_“Yes. Let’s talk after practice.”_

_“Roger!”_ Yachi mouthed back and Kuroo smiled, somehow looking content before he turned his gaze away from her. Assuming that he returns to his own practice, Yachi continues to set back the water bottles and towels near the benches.

On the other side of the court, Kuroo was nudged by Yaku who was giving him a stinky eye. “Since when did you get close with Karasuno’s manager?”

Kuroo placed a smug expression on his face, “Huh? What is that? Is that jealousy I hear from you?” he pretended to not hear the Nekoma’s libero as he lowered his head and cupped his right ear.

This response made the libero hissed in return, “You ass – “

“Ah, I remember that we’re going to have a temporary manager tomorrow for the day. It seems like Karasuno’s manager will be our manager.” Kai piped in before a brawl happen between them again.

Yaku cools down instantly and blinked, “Karasuno as our manager? That starry blonde girl?”

Kuroo cocked his head, “Eh…is that the first thing you notice about her? How romantic.”

“Shut up, you ugly bed-head!” Yaku kicked Kuroo’s side with a feisty force that made Kuroo coughed in pain by the impact.

Kai sighed heavily, tired of seeing the duo having their petty fight again. Kai looked towards the other side of the gym where Karasuno was playing a match against Shinzen and caught the figure of the petite small blonde haired girl.

His eyebrows lifted as he finally noticed something about her. “Ho…so that’s what made Kuroo and Yaku notice her.”

-

Yachi felt like she just entered another world of volleyball. It was disheartening to watch the team lose for every match and it certainly wasn’t a pretty picture for the team to do the penalty doing diving leaps around the court for so many times. She wondered whether they’ll bruise their chest in the future if they keep losing like this.

The match against Shinzen was calculative and short as Shinzen kept surprising the team with constant hits from their various formations. It was certainly hard to keep on looking at the ball without knowing who will spike it into Karasuno’s court. Yachi began writing down all of the details she learns from the first match.

Then when the team moved on to play against Fukurodani, she was surprised again by how big the gap of capability was between Karasuno and Fukurodani. Yachi’s eyes never left the players from Fukurodani when they kept the ball up on their side of the court and easily hands it over to the ace to spike it towards Karasuno. Yachi realizes how agile and powerful they were as a team, each person seems to own some internal understanding to each other’s method of play therefore they were quick in setting and spiking their scores.

Yachi couldn’t help but lost count of how many spikes the ace of Fukurodani were able to get through Karasuno in such elegant yet powerful form that Yachi’s hand instinctively move to sketch on her book when she sees the form of Fukurodani’s ace when he jumps and swing his arm to spike the ball. It was so similar to Hinata’s style of spiking although this ace was bigger, stronger and definitely more experienced.

Yachi also counts how many times the setter was able to deliver the ball to the members flexibly that she was able to compare Kageyama’s play with his. Yachi also managed to sketch his tossing form on her notes as she watched the entire match play.

By the end of the match, the referee blows the whistle where Karasuno lost another round of match again. Yachi stood up along with Kiyoko, coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei. All of them seem to understand something out of the previous matches they just saw.

“As we suspected, they’re very strong.” Takeda-sensei commented as the team members went off to do their penalty.

“Yeah, it’s not that we’re not on top of it but this is what it takes to be a team that competes in the nationals.” Coach Ukai replied.

“To be able to take on such amazing teams…we still need to do a lot of work.”

“Yeah.” Coach Ukai agreed.

Yachi flinched when the ace of Fukurodani spiked a powerful ball inside the court against Nekoma when the ball bounces away towards Tsukishima’s way. Yachi was about to yell a warning for him but Tsukishima manages to hit away the stray ball with the back of his hand but hissed painfully when he retreated his hand back.

“T-Tsukishima-kun, are you alright?” Yachi hurried towards his side and try to look for his hand. “If it stings then it’s better to cool down with water or a cooling gel – “

“Don’t bother. I’m not hurt.” Tsukishima cuts her off quickly and moves away. Yachi was a little troubled by his response but she could only shrug it off. She didn’t know why but Tsukishima always seem so off putting whenever it’s time for volleyball practice or match.

Karasuno then continue to play with Ubugawa however they also lose the first match for the nth time of the day and Yachi watches with worried expression that the team isn’t moving away in points for their scores in the day. It seems like Karasuno were still adapting to the methods of the teams in the training camp.

As Kiyoko jots down the result of the score, Yachi heard some of the members from Ubugawa commenting on Karasuno’s play.

“Geez, how many times did they do the penalty today?”

“They’re not bad…just mediocre.”

“Who are the first years that Nekoma had a hard time with? Maybe they’re exaggerating?”

Yachi huffed in annoyance as she looked over to the people conversing about Karasuno like that. Even though Hinata and Kageyama were not here, that does not mean the entire Karasuno were not good enough to play against.

“Don’t be upset, Yachi.” Kiyoko spoke gently.

Yachi pouted, “But…”

“If what Tanaka said is true then they’ll be here soon.”

As soon as Kiyoko says that, the gym’s door was opened widely by a pretty looking onee-chan with striking short blonde hair, dressed in cool black tank top and red pants.

“Oh! Looks like they’re still going at it! We made it in time!” She exclaimed happily.

Yachi’s eyes widened and her lips couldn’t help but widen when she sees the familiar figures of Hinata and Kageyama entering the gym, panting heavily as if they had been running their way here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading this chapter!
> 
> I feel like since Yachi is new to volleyball, she would be so surprised. The volleyball she knew from Karasuno's games was so different from the teams in Tokyo. Tokyo is a whole next level of "good" so I wanted to introduce Yachi to what actual volleyball is really like in competitive setting so yeah - Yachi gets amazed by so many people here. 
> 
> Also I plan on having Yachi meeting the members in Tokyo in various ways but for now I have the normal and basic meetings for her and the rest of the guys but I wanted to add something more - bbbuuuuttt it's so hard to write it properlyyyy. Like I have the idea and plot written down in notes but writing it in the actual story is more difficult lol. But I won't force the story to be perfect because it's so difficult and I ended up not writing it because it's just...too difficult haha. 
> 
> In this chapter, I encouraged Kuroo to act like Kuroo :p I'm so sorry to Kuroo fans out there if he came out weird ( I tried my best). ANYWAYS - Yachi is going to be Nekoma's temporary manager next! Exciting~
> 
> Oh I'm also curious about your thoughts on Yachi as temporary managers for each teams, especially Nekoma and Fukurodani (because they're the main here obvs). You know what - I want to know what you guys think about Yachi becoming manager in other teams, like Aoba Johsai, Shirotorizawa, etc. I'm really curious because it's so fun to know what you guys think of Yachi and I also get inspired a lot from your comments :D 
> 
> Please let me know what you think :3


	12. Chapter 12

After Hinata's and Kageyama’s arrival, it was as if a switch was turned on when they joined the team to play in the match. Yachi watches with giddiness for every time Hinata did his amazing high jumps in the air and how Kageyama sets quickly to Hinata’s hand for quick sets. It was always satisfying to watch the response from people who sees their quicks for the first time.

Yachi smiled brightly when the whistle blows and the referee signs the end of the match with Karasuno’s first win of the day. Shinzen’s faced looked disgruntled before the captain ordered the entire team to do the penalty of diving drills.

Yachi head over to Karasuno’s members and gave them towels and water bottles while Kiyoko discussing over the result of todays’ matches in her notebook along with the coach.

“Hinata! Kageyama-kun! I’m so glad you both made it here just in time for the last match!” Yachi bounced towards their side as said boys turned to her.

“Yachi-san! I totally aced the tests perfectly! It was all thanks to your help!” Hinata beamed with his arms open wide.

Kageyama added with a nod, “Thank you for helping us pass the remedial, Yachi-san.”

“As long as you both got here safe and sound. You both did amazing against Shinzen team members. They’re well known for their combination attacks so going against them with your fast quicks was the best outcome.” Yachi beamed back.

Hinata smiled sheepishly before he snorted his nose in a haughty expression, putting his hands on his hips while he lifts his chin as if to imitate an overly proud person. “You can count on me to do the unpredictable spikes.”

Kageyama sneered, “You can’t spike without my toss, idiot.”

“I-I totally can!” Hinata growled back.

Yachi kind of misses how they bicker back and forth like this, it was a funny yet amusing sight to see that they were getting along in that way. “You got here so fast. Did you leave earlier?”

“Saeko-nee-san drove really fast so I’m glad we got here quicker than we thought.” Kageyama said.

“Not sure if it was a safe ride though.” Hinata added with a low mutter but Yachi and Kageyama caught what he said and trembled at his statement.

The only thing that mattered was the fact that they got here in full piece.

Yachi flailed her hands, “A-at least you got here which is good! Ah – since this is the last practice match for the day, you both can clean up and head to the cafeteria for dinner. Also – “

“Yachi-san, can I talk to you right now?”

The three Karasuno first years turned around and saw the familiar looking figure of Nekoma’s captain. He was waving her to motion her to come over to his side of the court. Yachi’s eyes widened as she remembered that she had to talk to him about tomorrow’s temporary manager business.

“I have to go now. Oh, don’t forget to put the vests in the basket since we have to do laundry later. I’ll see you both later!” Yachi said quickly before she rushes away from them and head towards Nekoma’s captain.

He was standing over with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes following her figure as she hops closer to him. “Kuroo-san, I’m sorry for the time.”

Kuroo gave a friendly smile, “No worries. Just want to give you some heads up before we start tomorrow. So, I just want to brief on some few things.”

Yachi prepares to jot down in her notebook as Kuroo began to explain some certain tasks about the Nekoma team that she had to help before the start and throughout the practice. How she has to collect all of the members, make sure that some of the members who were feeling injured gets notified immediately to her attention and be ready on standby in case anything happened.

“You might have to hear more pointers tomorrow from the director and our coach but overall that’s what I wanted to brief you up on. As for as meeting the members…we can do that tomorrow morning.”

Yachi stops jotting down the words in her notebook before she looked up, “Are you sure, Kuroo-san?”

Kuroo eyes twinkle in amusement before he winked at her. “I just feel like keeping you to myself for now, is that alright?”

“Eh?” Yachi was stupefied by his previous word that her eyes widened in shock and she felt a little feverish too.

Suddenly Kuroo laughs and poked her right cheek with his finger, “Loosen up, Karasuno-chan. I don’t bite.”

He might say that but his eyes speak another meaning and Yachi just finds herself flustered and confused. “K-Kuroo-san…um…” Yachi mumbles off incoherent words due to the sudden feeling of being awfully out of place and shy.

She wasn’t used to encountering situations like this. Her whole relationship with boys has always been platonic and polite at most, since they were mostly classmate-term so she has never been picked on like this directly. There might have been some cases where it was accidental because she was unsure of her own control of emotions but this – this was real.

Yachi felt incredibly flustered when she sees how Kuroo openly stared at her like that with the bright eyes, handsome smile and a charming expression on his face.

But Yachi needs to think of an escape, she really can’t deal with this yet. She didn’t have a plan for this situation yet!

“Excuse me but…I – I have to go now for kitchen duty. Um…excuse me, Kuroo-san.”

Yachi said quickly before she leaps away with her little feet running across the gym and head out to where the kitchen was to prepare the camp’s dinner. Kuroo stared to where she goes with her little legs fluttering away as she ran and he also noticed the way her hair adorably bounces to her steps.

“So Karasuno-chan manages to find a way out.” Kuroo muttered with a grin as he watches the little starry girl who ran away from him.

Kuroo couldn’t help himself to feel eager in getting to know her. When he sees her bright brown eyes for the first time, he was stunned for a moment because she looked familiar to the idol that he had been crushing on since forever.

However, there was something special about Yachi that made her stand out to him. When she smiled towards him for the first time in their first greeting, Kuroo felt something that he hadn’t felt for such a long time.

Something was starting to bloom inside his chest.

-

“You’re really good at this, Yachi-chan.” Yukie commented as she watches Yachi placed down several trays of food on the table for the members to come and eat. Dinner time starts in a few minutes and Yachi managed to get all the food and drinks prepared.

Yachi smiles sheepishly, “Thank you, Yukie-san. You’re also really quick in making the dishes too.”

Yukie grins, “I cook really quick because I get too hungry if I make them for too long.”

“I totally understand what you mean.” Yachi laughs at the older girl’s words.

A few members of different teams came inside the cafeteria and brightened when they saw the food. They came quickly and took their plates, eagerly receiving the food by Yukie and Yachi.

Yukie and Yachi manages to quickly serve the food for the people who came to eat their dinner at that hour. Yachi was able to prepare more dishes as they were quickly running out and placed them again so that there won’t be empty food-trays.

As Yachi gave out a bowl of miso soup to a member from Ubugawa team, a familiar face came to her and hold out his empty bowl of rice. “Seconds please!”

‘The Mohawk guy…he seems to be pretty hungry tonight.’ Yachi smiles and gets the bowl from him, “Of course. Do you need more scoops than usual?”

“Yes, please!” He replied eagerly with bright eyes and a wobbly smile. Yachi remembered him crying his heart out in the morning earlier when they saw each other for the first time.

As Yachi fills his bowl of rice with extra scoop, he smiled widely and suddenly cried out again in tears when he receives the bowl. “Th-thank you so much!”

Yachi was dumbfounded by his reaction so she could only say with a confused, “You’re welcome?”

She hears several laughter coming from the members, who were wearing the Nekoma jerseys, stood in line beside the crying Mohawk guy.

“Yamamoto, please don’t embarrass yourself further.”

“You’re scaring her away!”

“Move along, Tora! We’re hungry!”

Tora-san, Yachi concluded, moved from his position and gave Yachi a wobbly smile again and went to his table to eat. Yachi scooped more rice bowls for the Nekoma members when she saw Hinata standing in between them.

“Yachi-san! You cooked these dishes?” Hinata asks as he gave her his bowl of rice.

Yachi receives it to fill his bowl full. “Yes. Please eat a lot, Hinata.”

“Of course! Oh, I want to introduce him to you – he’s Kenma! The guy I talk about before with you.” Hinata then nudged to the awfully tired-looking pudding-blonde haired boy next to him.

Yachi remembers him as the setter of Nekoma, she remembered how sharp his eyes looked when he played in the game despite him looking like he wasn’t athletic. Yachi gave a small bow, “Nice to meet you, I’m Yachi Hitoka.”

The setter returned her greeting with his own. “Kozume Kenma. Nice to meet you.” Kenma gave her his bowl and spoke up, “Please scoop a half amount of rice for me.”

Yachi nodded and scooped his rice but Hinata slipped in, “Eh Kenma, you’re only eating that much? You need to eat more.”

“I don’t feel like eating more.” Kenma commented then he receives the bowl from Yachi. “Thank you.”

“Kenma-san, Kuroo-san told me that you should at least eat one bowl full of rice. You were so out of energy when we did our matches today.” Another boy spoke up beside Kenma.

Hinata nodded in agreement to the other boy’s statement. “I agree with Inuoka. You should eat more.”

“Hee…it’s so troublesome though.” Kenma replied tiredly.

“But the food is so delicious tonight so you don’t have to hold back, Kenma-san. Ah! Are you the one who cooked our dinner? Are you from Karasuno too? I’m Inuoka Sou!” The bright tall brown haired boy spoke energetically.

“Yachi Hitoka, nice to meet you Inuoka-san.” Yachi remembers that Hinata mentioned Inuoka before.

“Inuoka is fine. I heard that you’ll be our temporary manager for tomorrow, Yachi-san. Have you talked to our captain yet?” Inuoka piped brightly.

Hinata’s eyes widened and he faltered when he heard this. “Wait – why is Yachi-san going to be your manager for tomorrow?”

Yachi smiled sheepishly, she forgot to tell Hinata about this. “Ah…in order to accommodate every teams fairly, we have the managers to rotate into several team per day. I was pointed to be with Nekoma for tomorrow.”

Hinata frowned, “Eh?! But Yachi-san, we need you in our team.”

“You’ll have Yukie-san from Fukurodani to help you out tomorrow.” Yachi replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll be rotating back to you again soon.”

However, Hinata could only respond in defeated tone. He wanted to talk more but Inuoka cuts in saying that they were holding the line for too long. Hinata walks away defeated expression, followed by Kenma who managed to grabbed another plate of salad. Inuoka turned to Yachi and beamed, “I’ll look forward to work with you, Yachi-san.”

Yachi couldn’t help but smile at the puppy-smile expression Inuoka was showing to her. “Me too.”

After the line of Hinata, Kenma, and Inuoka moved away – Yachi was greeted with the captain of the Nekoma and Fukurodani team together.

Kuroo gave Yachi a soft smile, “Hello Yachi-san, you’re working really hard.”

“Kuroo-san, hello.” Yachi greeted back.

“Hello! You’re going to be our temporary manager too for this week, right?” A wild black and white haired boy chirped when he came next to Kuroo, smiling brightly towards Yachi.

Yachi recognized him as the ace of the Fukurodani team, one that she was so enchanted with when she watched Fukurodani played against Karasuno for the first time.

What a presence, even in off court Yachi could tell that he’s the ace. The way he carried himself was confident. Something that Yachi wasn’t accustomed with on a regular basis.

Yachi blinks her eyes, she almost sees the shadowed image of Hinata and him overlapping each other when he smiled brightly like that.

“Y-yes. You must be…Bokuto-san, right?”

“Haha so you knew my name, that’s great! I’m very excited to meet someone new as our manager! Kaori and Yukippe are cool girls so I’m looking forward to have you in our team!”

Kuroo rolled his eyes, “Leave it to Bokuto to scare off new people.” He commented playfully.

Bokuto huffed in response, like an owl puffing his wings towards another. “I’m not scaring off people, I’m trying to be friendly!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kuroo waved his hand lazily to the owl captain pouting, “Just get your food, bro – we’re going to hold the line for too long.”

“You’re such a loser.” Bokuto grumbled as he asked for another plate of serving to Yachi. He then smiles widely again towards her, “By the way, I haven’t caught your name yet.”

“My name is Yachi Hitoka, nice to meet you, Bokuto-san.” Yachi said as she gave his serving.

Bokuto beamed when he received the food, “Ho – what a cute name! Is it okay if I call you Yachi?”

“S-sure?” Yachi replied, unsure of how to act before the overly bright cheerful boy. “Um…do you need another serving, Bokuto-san?”

“Really?! Then can I have another plate of chicken too? Those are really yummy!”

Yukie spoke up as she passes by behind Yachi while carrying a box in her hands, “Yachi cooked most of the dishes tonight and she cooked a lot of amount. Have as much as you like, boys.”

“WOAH! No wonder the dishes tastes so delicious!” Bokuto’s eyes widened before sending a thumbs up towards Yachi. “Send my compliments to the chef!” 

It was such a funny gesture that Yachi couldn’t help but laughed because of him. Yachi covered her mouth with her hands.

In this situation, both Kuroo and Bokuto was caught off guard by Yachi’s laugh. It was surprising because they didn’t expect to hear such laughter from her in this short amount of time they encounter each other.

The way her eyes twinkled with amusement, her cheeks flushed pink and her the edges of her lips was caught behind her hand.

And her sound – she sounds likes twinkling summer bells that reminds you of the warm and happy days.

Bokuto smiled sheepishly, suddenly feeling proud that he was able to make the younger girl laughed out loud like that.

Kuroo on the other hand, froze up from the the tips of his wild hair to the toes of his feet. All that was repeated inside his mind was –

‘CUTECUTECUTECUTECUTECUTE CUTECUTECUTECUTECUTECUTE!’

“Um…Bokuto-san, if you’re done with your food then please go back to your seat.” The Fukurodani’s setter spoke up in the line after them. “You’re keeping the line too long.”

Yachi watches with a light chuckle as the captains of Nekoma and Fukurodani was pushed away by the setter of the Fukurodani team. Once they walked away with their trays full of food, he turned to Yachi with an apologetic smile.

“I’m so sorry for Bokuto-san. He gets really rowdy when he is excited to meet someone.” He said.

“That’s fine. Full scoop?” Yachi asked when he prepares his bowl of rice.

“Yes, please.” He replied.

He watches Yachi as she scooped a full bowl of rice for him. As he was about to move, he turned towards her again. “Yachi-san, was it?”

Yachi blinked at his call but replied. “Yes.”

He nodded, “My name is Akaashi Keiji. I’m looking forward to your cooperation on the day you rotate to us as our manager. Bokuto-san might be a strange character so I hope you don’t feel burden by him too much.” He explained, “Our team is quite cooperative but we have some individuals who are a little bit difficult to handle with. If there are any questions about the team, you can always come to me.”

Yachi felt her chest lighten with a bit of ease when she hears that. ‘What a nice person.’

“Thank you very much, Akaashi-san.”

“Then I’ll see you later. Thank you for the food.” The other boy smiled in return before he goes back to his seat.

Yachi sighs, feeling a little strange after the encounters she met today but she was glad that she managed to help everyone for today. Even though she was only a first year, she learned that she was also capable of meeting new people and communicating with others well if she doesn’t focus too much on messing things up. As Yachi continues to serve dinner for the members, a hopeful seed planted in her mind.

‘Being a manager is worth breaking out of my shell. I have to keep doing my best!’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter for this week!
> 
> So Yachi gets to meet other people from other teams. I want to start out slowly and see where this can go. So far Yachi is communicating pretty well with other characters (for now ehem) and hopefully I can share more of her interactions with other characters soon.
> 
> I'm very happy to read the comments you all wrote for this story. It makes me so happy to know that you are enjoying my story. Thank you very much everyone!
> 
> What do you guys think about who Yachi connects with the most in the entire series? It doesn't have to be a ship :) Yachi is a really interesting character so it's very curious how she fits with other people as a friend. I like to guess that Yachi fits the most comfortably with Shimizu-senpai because she's just that great. And Shimizu-senpai is the kind of senpai that would reassure you that everything is going to be fine. She's the kind of senpai we all need in our life and honestly I can see why Yachi looked up to her so much in canon too. I love strong female characters like Shimizu-senpai, she is so inspiring! 
> 
> Let me know your comments down below :D I'm really curious about your answers. That's all I have for this week, I will be posting more chapters next week. Thank you for waiting until this far and have a nice day! Stay safe! <3


	13. Chapter 13

Later in the night, Hinata hangs out at the Nekoma’s room, talking with Inuoka and Kenma after bath time. Kenma was busy playing with his game console while conversing with Hinata and Inuoka, as they were talking about volleyball and the recent new team member from Nekoma.

“Hey, who the heck was that middle blocker?” Hinata asked.

Kenma replied without looking away from his game, “Oh he’s a first year, Haiba Lev. He’s half Russian and half Japanese.”

Hinata replied in a bewildered tone, “H-half?! So cool!” He then tries the name on his lips, “L-liev….Liefu….” It was a little strange to pronounce it properly.

“It’s Lev. What does it mean in Russian again? Tiger?” Kenma looked away from his game.

“It means Lion. _Lion._ ” Inuoka responded this time.

Hinata hummed when he tries to remember from his memories, “He wasn’t in our practice match the last time we played?”

“Hn. Lev started volleyball in high school. When we went to Karasuno for Golden Week, he still hadn’t played very much and only regular members went.” Kenma explained.

Hinata eyes widened, “He could already play like that?”

Kenma furrowed his eyebrows, “Yeah. And when we were paired together, it was really difficult. No matter how many times I tried, our timings are always off. I’m used to it now.” He shrugged.

Hinata leaned back in understanding, “I see…”

“Kenma-san couldn’t stop sighing.” Inuoka grinned.

Hinata’s eyes brightened, “I guess there are times where you can’t read people, Kenma.”

Kenma who went back to playing his game frowned and furrowed his brows further, “Lev it’s just too special. Right now, he’s working mostly with his physical abilities and instincts and his height.”

Hinata also nodded then added with an envious tone. “Yeah, his height is totally unfair! I want some!”

Inuoka joined in as well, “He’s been blessed with too much but I’m not going to lose!”

Kenma changed his expression and shrugged, “Well he’s a powerful asset, totally honest and not a bad guy. But he’s too honest sometimes.” Kenma says before he looked up from his game and stared at Hinata, “Oh but his passing basics are still completely bad. He’s worse than you, Shouyou. His serves are worse than yours too.”

Hinata expressed his perplexed reaction straight away, “Am I the guideline of what’s bad or not, Kenma?”

“But you are bad.” Kenma added simply and Hinata could only cringe in defeat because he knew Kenma was right. His receives were way off, not even to Kageyama’s level and that pisses him off a bit.

Hinata grumbled a little bit as Inuoka snickered in his defeated expression. The orange haired boy merely shook his head and tried to change the topic. “Anyways! I want to ask you both a favor for tomorrow. Yachi-san is going to be your temporary manager so I need your help to watch over her.” Hinata continued, “She’s a bit timid and shaky but she’s a great support when it comes to matches.”

“Sure! Yachi-san seems nice.” Inuoka exclaimed.

Hinata suddenly looked smug, “Yachi-san is good in many things. So Kenma, Inuoka – “ Hinata clasped his hands together in a begging pose, “Please watch over Yachi-san! I just feel at ease if my friends are there for her.”

Kenma gave him a side glance, “It wouldn’t be that bad. Yachi-san looks diligent enough so I’m sure she won’t encounter any problems.”

Hinata grimace as he lowered his hands, “There is something else that I’m worried about…it’s…it’s…” Hinata seemed to lower his voice and looked around suspiciously, as if he was afraid people would be listening to him about what he’s going to say.

Kenma quirked his eyebrow at his gesture but then Hinata leaned in and spoke in a softer tone, “It’s your captain I’m worried about. I saw him looking at Yachi-san ever since I got here. My guts tell me that something is off.”

Inuoka tilts his head, “Hn? Is Kuroo-senpai interested in Yachi-san?”

Hinata frowned, “I don’t know, I can’t really tell. But! My guts are telling me that there is something going on. I just can’t put my finger on it on what it’s about.”

Kenma merely smirked in amusement and went back to his game, “Aren’t you worrying too much? Besides, Kuroo is not going to do anything bad to her. I promise. He’s not that kind of guy despite how he looks.”

Hinata loosened himself when he heard Kenma reassured him. “If you say so. Just…tell me if anything happens to Yachi-san with your team tomorrow. Shimizu-senpai told me once that Yachi-san sometimes worked too hard that she forgets to take care of herself.”

Inuoka sat up properly then saluted, “Roger! I promise to watch over her.”

Hinata saluted back. “Yosh! You’re the best!”

Kenma merely chuckled at their antics before the three of them continued to talk about other things. Although his mind did wander back to the person of their conversation.

He doesn’t know much about Yachi-san but what made Kuroo observed her for so long today?

-

Yachi woke up before her alarm ring. The temperature was a little colder than she expected but she felt uncomfortable if she stayed inside her covers. Maybe it was because she was not in her bedroom so she felt strange sleeping in a classroom. So instead of sleeping off the remaining time before her alarm rings, she decided to get ready for the day.

After showering and wearing the sports outfit tor that day, several alarms rang from different phones and Yachi notices now that Kiyoko and Kaori were the ones who woke up from the alarm and turned it off.

“Eh? Yachi, were you already awake?” Kiyoko asks from her sleepiness when she notices the younger girl already dressed.

Yachi was a bit caught off guard by the older girl’s appearance at the moment. To say that Shimizu Kiyoko was known as the most beautiful girl in the third year was no exaggeration – even her fresh morning face was also dazzling.

“Y-yeah…I woke up earlier so I decided to shower right away.” Yachi replied.

Kaori yawned and stretched her arms, “I’m amazed you were able to wake up that early. I’ll get ready too.”

Afterwards the managers in that room woke up to get ready for the day while being careful because Saeko-san was still sleeping. It seems like she went off drinking with the advisors and coaches in the previous night.

Yachi came closer and tugged Saeko’s blanket up so that she’ll be fully covered. When she stood up from her position and was about to leave the room after she grabbed her stuff, Kiyoko came towards her and patted her head.

“Do your best today.”

Yachi was so happy for being encouraged like this. She beamed brightly towards the older girl and replied, “You too, senpai!”

-

After quick breakfast, she decided to wait near the gym and looked for Takeda-sensei or Daichi so she can talk about the rotation plan today. It didn’t feel right if she just went to Nekoma’s team right away so she needed to at least report to them before she goes off to her the Nekoma’s team.

She spotted Daichi entering the gym with Asahi who looked like they just came here right after breakfast. Yachi quickly hurry towards them. “Good morning!”

The two of them turned around to face her and brightened, “Good morning to you too, Yachi-san!” Daichi greeted while Asahi waved his hand.

“Today I will be helping for the Nekoma team today and tomorrow I will be rotating to Fukurodani before coming back to you again. I feel like I had to report to you before I go to them…so…” Yachi trails off, unsure how to continue.

Daichi chuckles and shook his head, “You’re too serious about this, Yachi-san but it’s okay. Takeda-sensei and coach already talked to us about this so there is no need for worry. Besides, it’ll be an experience for us to work with other managers from other schools.” He then patted her head gently, “Just do your best and don’t worry about us.”

“We’ll be here in case if you need anything, Yachi-san.” Asahi added, giving her his own friendly big-brotherly smile.

Yachi was grateful by their understanding and nodded her head. “Okay! Then I’ll see you later, senpai!”

“Hn. Good luck!” Daichi retreated back his hand and waved.

Asahi waved as well. “Do your best, Yachi-san.”

When Yachi hops away, Asahi couldn’t help but comment. “She’s cute as always. Always doing her best too, I’m so proud.” He placed his hand on his chest.

“Are you a doting parent?” Dachi snickered when he sees Asahi’s face gleamed with pride when he watches the younger girl hops to the other side.

Yachi managed to grab her things and went over towards the side where the Nekoma members were hanging. She then spotted their coach and walked towards him to introduce herself.

“Good morning.” Yachi bowed towards the Nekoma’s coach who was settling down on a bench on one of the court to get ready.

He turned around and gave a friendly smile, “Good morning. You must be our temporary manager. What is your name?”

“My name is Yachi Hitoka. I am Karasuno’s first year manager. Nice to meet you.” She introduced herself.

He tapped on his board and nodded, “Oh? Are you a new manager to a volleyball team, Yachi-san?”

Yachi nodded, “Yes, I recently joined.” She replied before she bowed again, “I’m sorry beforehand if I make mistakes in the future.”

The coach waved his hand in reassurance, “It’s fine. I remembered the last time our team did a practice match, there was only one manager so seeing you was a little bit surprising. But a good surprise nonetheless!” He smiled wider, “Welcome to the team, Yachi-san. You can call me Naoi-coach if you’d like.”

“Roger!” She saluted.

The coach then instructed her on what to do as the manager for the Nekoma’s team. Yachi list down all the things she needed to know and nodded on some parts. It looks like without having a manager, the Nekoma members learned how to support the team in their own way so having her around would make their practice easier if she were to help them with their additional tasks.

“That’s all for now. Ah, Inuoka, come here!” Coach Naoi suddenly called one of the closest member who entered the gym.

As Yachi looked towards his direction, she sees Inuoka’s face brightened when he sees her and run on light steps towards their position.

“Good morning, coach! Yachi-san too!”

“Good morning, Inuoka.” She greeted.

“Inuoka, since Yachi’s here – please guide her a little bit to gather the members for practice time. Also make sure that they’re not too late this time.” Coach instructed.

“Roger! Let’s go, Yachi-san.” Inuoka saluted and called Yachi out of the gym so that they can call the rest of the Nekoma team to gather at the gym on time.

Along the way, she got introduced to the team members as well. Inuoka brightly introduced her to his team members with such giddiness and even her presence seemed to brighten the atmosphere as some of them were excited to have Yachi-san as their temporary manager.

“Yachi-san! Today I will help you with whatever you need!” Tora spoke up enthusiastically when Yachi called to him to gather at the gym on time.

Yachi laughs lightly, he was really like the mirrored version of Tanaka-senpai but just with the additional stylish Mohawk. “Un! Please make sure to tell your friends to come on time too.”

“I will!” Tora saluted like a brave soldier before he ran off to grab his team mates to the gym. Along the way Yachi met Kuroo in the hallway outside of the cafeteria, it seemed like he was walking with Akaashi after breakfast.

“Good morning!” Yachi greeted them.

Kuroo’s face brightened, “Yachi-chan, good morning! You look cute today as well.”

Yachi was a little shy by his reply so she could only give him an embarrassed smile in return.

Akaashi gave Kuroo a side glance before he greeted Yachi in his own way. “Good morning, Yachi-san. Are you doing well today?”

“Hn. I’m doing well, thank you for asking. Um, Kuroo-san. Coach tells me that we’re gathering soon so please be on time at the gym. If it’s possible, can you tell the other Nekoma team members if you see them as well?”

“Sure.” Kuroo replied before he added, “Ah – you might have to look a bit for Kenma though. He’s probably playing his game somewhere but he loses track of time easily when he plays. I always tell him to not play for too long even after quick breakfast.”

“Okay. I’ll go look for him now.” Yachi replied.

Kuroo smiled, “You do that. If you can’t find him then just call to any of us. We can drag him to the gym together.”

‘His wording sounds a little exaggerating though.’ Yachi smiled sheepishly.

“Oi – Yachiiii!” Another voice boomed as said person came closer, zooming from Kuroo’s side and stood right in front of her after a quick run. “Good morning!”

‘He’s also so energetic even in the morning.’ “Good morning, Bokuto-san.”

“You’re small as always, Yachi! I was wondering who these two were talking to when I saw you guys from behind.” Bokuto said as he tilts his head towards Kuroo and Akaashi.

The calm setter turned towards the ace and furrowed his eyebrows, “Bokuto-san, I don’t think height is something you should talk so insensitively…”

“That’s okay!” Yachi added without missing a beat, “I’m used to it.”

“Really? Then, my apologies.” Akaashi lowered his head.

“I-It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yachi’s voice wavered by the other boy’s response.

Bokuto walked and slipped between Akaashi and Kuroo while wrapping their shoulders with his arms as he pulled them closer to him. “ _Mou~_ Don’t be so polite, we’re all friends here!”

Kuroo gritted his teeth as he smiled sharply towards the owl captain, “Bokuto, if you scream in my ear one more time, I swear I’ll – “

“Bokuto-san, you’re being rowdy again.” Akaashi reminded him tiredly.

However, this time Bokuto did a pouting expression, “Friends~ friends~.”

‘He’s more playful and child-like than I thought he would be.’ The picture in front of her was quite an amusing sight. Before a bicker war would break out, Yachi spoke up that she needed to call the rest of the team members and excused herself.

“See you at the gym, Yachi!” Bokuto grinned as he still wraps his arms around Akaashi’s and Kuroo’s shoulder.

Kuroo was nudging the arm around his shoulder as he gave a smile to Yachi, “Don’t forget to pick up, Kenma, Yachi-chan. Bokuto – get off!”

Yachi chuckled lightly as she turns around and walked away, trying to look for the pudding haired setter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm back again with a new chapter!
> 
> This time we see Yachi-san preparing for her time with Nekoma - ooh exciting hehehe.


	14. Chapter 14

It didn’t take too long to look for Kenma when she runs up the stairs from the ground floor, she spotted Kenma sitting on of the stairs while his eyes glued to the game console in his hands. He seemed pretty serious about it so Yachi walks up to him without haste so she doesn’t bother his game suddenly.

With her shadow covering his front, Kenma finally looked up from his game and saw Yachi. “Ah.” The voice came out of his lips softly.

Yachi smiled in return, “Good morning, Kozume-san. Practice will be starting in less than ten minutes and coach Naoi wanted all of us to be there on time today.”

Kenma nodded then looked down to his game before he sighed. “Ha…another day of practice, huh.”

Yachi waits for him as she notices that Kenma was moving his neck stiffened when he tries to stretch his head around. The gesture was something that she was familiar of when she sees her mother at home, stressed from overworking.

“Kozume-san, does the back of your neck hurt?” She asked.

The pudding haired setter stopped his movement and looked back to Yachi properly, “….Yes?”

“Do you need some patch relief for it? Though I recommend you using gel instead since it’s more comfortable using that. I think I have them somewhere in my bag right now…” Yachi began to rummage her bag to look for the cool muscle gel that she carries around with her.

Kenma frowns, “It’s fine. I’m not that hurt and it doesn’t really bother me.”

Yachi grabbed the cooling gel and replied, “But when you set the balls for the other members, you’ll have to move your neck back and forth for better view, right? I think it’s safer to use this before any muscle strain happen today.”

Kenma reached out to receive the gel, a little bit perplexed that she knows how he does his setting. “How do you know that?”

Yachi stiffened, seeing his eyes zeroed on her. She felt nervous all of the sudden, seeing the way his eyes glints with calculating look as if she was being analyzed like a player in court – despite her not being one.

She gulps her nervousness and gave a shaky smile. “Um…I saw your play during the practice matches yesterday and noticed the comparison between our team’s setter and yours.”

‘Is it a wrong answer? Am I allowed to say that to him? Is he offended?’ Yachi was feeling nervous since Kenma seems to be asking that question towards her about setting in court. ‘Maybe it wasn’t something to talk about freely?’ She wondered.

Instead of being insulted, Kenma surprised her by a smile stretched on his lips. “For someone new to volleyball, you’re quite observant.”

“Y-yeah…I guess.”

Kenma smiled wider, amused by her perplexed expression. It seems like he was laughing at her for some reason. Maybe she did say something wrong but it amused him instead? She doesn’t really know.

She then notices the way Kenma uncomfortably spread the gel on the skin of his neck while hissing quietly at the touch. Yachi’s eyes widened, “Kozume-san, are you okay?”

“It’s fine. It’s just my neck is too stiff.” He explained, “I probably need to stretch longer for the game.”

Yachi knew how much painful it could be if he let his neck muscle feel sore like that until later. Her mother used to complain and cry about having such stiff necks because she was leaning too much on her table for work and the only way Yachi could help her was –

“Do you want me to massage it for you?” She blurted out.

“Eh? Really?” Kenma looked expectantly before he calms down, “But…is it okay?”

Yachi didn’t know why she blurted out the offer but she remembered that she learned how to massage her mother’s neck properly so the stiffness goes away even for a short moment.

“I’m not an expert but I can do massages for the neck area.” 

“Um…” Kenma suddenly felt awkward, now he realized that he was expecting her to massage for him, which would be great for his neck, but he felt awkward about her touching him yet. He really wants it though, his neck was practically yelling for help because of the stiffness.

Yachi gave a sheepish smile. “If you don’t want to, that’s okay. Just apply the gel properly so that you won’t feel too stiff - ”

Kenma sees her hands then her fingers. They were small, soft looking, and dainty – it looks really pretty and he definitely won’t complain if such hands touch him –

Kenma stopped himself thinking further before any embarrassing thoughts crossed over his head and blurted, “Yes.”

Yachi’s eyes widened momentarily before she smiles, “Okay.” She said as she walked towards him and sat behind him on the steps of stair above him. “Gel please.”

Kenma hoped that she doesn’t see his nervousness as she sat behind him closely. Meanwhile Yachi took off the gel cap and spread it on Kenma’s neck, before spreading it evenly with her hand.

Kenma shivered a little when the tips of Yachi’s fingers touched the back of his neck. At a moment, he felt like jumping away because he didn’t realize how sensitive the back of his neck was when she touched him.

Then all thoughts went out of his mind when Yachi starts to pressed her fingertips on Kenma’s most sore parts of his neck and groaned embarrassingly when he felt good.

Yachi only chuckled when he did it, despite Kenma’s face started heating up from his sudden reaction, his ears were burning up as well. “My mother also reacted like this when I massaged her. She’s always leaning over her desk so I like to help her relieve the tension on her neck like this. Sorry but this will feel a little strange but bear with me.”

Kenma couldn’t help but let out his voice again when Yachi’s fingers started sliding up and down on the back and sides of his neck, easing his muscles. It felt like tons of bricks were currently being lifted from his neck and shoulder area and Kenma honestly didn’t know why he never considered getting a proper massage like this.

Surprisingly it only took less than five minutes for Yachi to do so. At the end, she pulls her hands away from his neck and stood up. “How does it feel right now? Is it better to move around your head?”

Kenma sat up and rolled his shoulders and neck, feeling way lighter than before. His neck and shoulders suddenly felt light like feathers, an exaggeration but it does felt like that, which surprised him.

He turned and gave a delighted smile, “It was wonderful. Thank you so much, Yachi-san.”

“Of course!” Yachi replied as she walks down the stairs, “Let’s go to the gym before we’re too late.”

Kenma stared at Yachi as she bounces down the steps, catching the glimpse of her starry pins on her golden hair. He stretched his arms a bit for one more time as he followed Yachi down the stairs too.

He really hoped that his burning ears can also cool down quickly. It would be embarrassing if people ask him why and to know the reason for that was because Yachi touched his neck.

But he didn’t regret it though, it felt really food.

The softness of her fingers were also delicate and comfortable. Kenma unconsciously rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks suddenly dusted with light pink, because he was a little embarrassed yet strangely content.

-

Yachi prepares for the towels and water bottles once she reached the gym and let the team members starts stretching on their own. She momentarily faces with the half-Russian giant who scared the wits out of her at times, although he was actually quite friendly.

“Yachi-san, don’t forget my water bottle too.” Lev suddenly appeared beside Yachi when she fills the water bottle she was currently holding.

Yachi jumps at his sudden appearance next to her. He was so tall, taller than Tsukishima, she was so unprepared for his height whenever he comes near her.

“Y-yes, sorry for missing yours, Haiba-san.” Yachi gets his water bottle to fill.

“You can call me, Lev, Yachi-san.” He replied with a friendly smile.

“Okay.”

Another voice calls from a distance, “Hey, Lev! Don’t scare her out of nowhere like that, you’re doing that on purpose! I saw you!”

“Y-Yaku-san?!” Lev choked, surprised that he got caught by his senpai.

Yachi merely sighs and smiles tiredly. Looks like tall people always want to use their chance to surprise her with their height. She guessed there must be joy for tall people in teasing her height after all.

The light brown hair libero glared at Lev, eyes darting like daggers towards the tall half-Russian.

Yachi fills his bottle and pointed, “You should head back and continue to warm up before Yaku-san gets angrier.”

“ _O-osu…_ ” He faltered but followed her words anyways, knowing that angering Yaku at this time of hour would be troublesome.

Yachi chuckles at the sight of the tall first year gets yelled by the shorter third year.

‘Like mama cat scolding the big kitten.’ Yachi giggled at the sight.

-

Nekoma’s first match was with Fukurodani. Yachi already prepared for the towels and bottles so now she was next to Coach Naoi as he starts with his opening guidance to some members to make a breakthrough in their match against Fukurodani.

She opened her notebook to the newest page and wrote down the date and the players who are the starting members from Nekoma’s team.

“Yachii!” She looked up from her notebook and heard a familiar energetic voice calls her from the other court. The ace of the Fukurodani team waving at her from the other side, “Watch for my awesome spikes today!”

Yachi could only gave him a polite smile, unsure how exactly to response to his enthusiastic statement.

“Focus on your damn team, Bokuto!” Kuroo yelled back as he rolled his eyes before looking to Yachi. “Let me know if that idiot bothers you.”

“I think I’ll be okay, Kuroo-san.” Yachi couldn’t help but chuckle at his words.

The libero of the Nekoma team added next to Yachi’s side, “We’ve been playing against Fukurodani for quite some time now, Yachi-san. Bokuto’s spikes are sharp and strong, so watch out for his strays.”

Yachi knew how some of the stray balls spiked from some powerful players did land or hit to another person so she nodded in agreement to the boy’s warning. “Yes, Yaku-san. I’ll be sure to watch out for any stray balls.”

Yaku gave Yachi a friendly smile and pat her shoulder, “Well, if you have any questions about the team, feel free to ask me.”

“Roger!”

The referee then calls for the team to gather to the court properly, signaling for the match to start. Yachi clicks her mechanical pencil and gets ready to write down the scores and any details she learns from their game.

Upon starting the game, Nekoma was the receiver. Yachi was already entranced by the way the ball went through from Fukurodani’s jump serve by Konoha and to the Nekoma’s court, the ball saved by Tora.

Then the ball continues to connect as she watches each teams did their best to make the balls gets through each other’s courts. Yachi updates the points on the score board while she also jotted down the scores in her own notebook.

All this time, she was always focused on how Karasuno utilizes their power and incredible individual strength to contribute to the team but she realized that the other teams were way beyond Karasuno’s level.

‘Takeda-sensei was right, they are really good.’ Yachi changes the point on the scoreboard when a point goes to Fukurodani. Bokuto-san were firing his cross hits today therefore the Nekoma blockers had a little bit tough moment in blocking his spikes.

Not to mention Akaashi were so coordinated with the team members that he was able to shot several balls right to the wing spikers’ position to a point where a comfortable height was the best spot to spike towards Nekoma’s court. Although Yachi sees that Nekoma was not so easy to break down as well since their receives were always top notch.

Yachi realized that Nekoma truly deserves “Connect” style that they all so perfected on. They really try to keep the ball connected without letting one second slip away to the ground, letting the ball to go back to the setter or straight away to the spikers. It was truly an incredible sight, watching how the members elegantly connect the balls without making much of a ruckus, like it was already their nature.

‘Karasuno also needs to improve our receives, we can’t always depend on the libero to do all the work,’ Yachi jots that observation down on her notebook, impressed by how quick and agile the Nekoma’s libero was able to receive Bokuto’s power spikes.

By her observation, she learns how Nekoma has some great tall blockers to which Kuroo seemed to be the one who signals the blockers to position themselves every time a ball was about to go through their side.

When one of the ball spiked by Sarukui from the Fukurodani team gets blocked by Kuroo’s hands, Sarukui gritted in annoyance as Kuroo responded in a smug expression.

“Yay~ a point for us.” Kuroo teased, basking in Fukurodani’s frustration as their spikes gets blocked again.

“Damn it! I’ll get the next one for sure!” Sarukui groaned and went back to his position.

Kuroo snickered along with Lev who was on his side, their faces turned into demon-looking-expression when they laugh with their mean eyes.

‘They kind of look like villains for a second.’ Yachi thought with an amused expression before she suddenly remembers one of her previous conversation with Hinata about Nekoma.

_“ - But I guess when it comes to blocking from Nekoma, their captain is pretty high specs. He looks like a sneaky cat when he blocks your spikes and he also looks like this.” Hinata then proceed to push his curly hair up while squinting his eyes in a mean expression with a scowl._

Yachi giggled, remembering Hinata’s words. She realized that he was talking about Kuroo back then. Although he didn’t wear a scowl on his face, he does look like a sneaky cat with a mean expression when he blocks.

Upon Yachi’s giggle, Kuroo turned his head to her sound and felt himself smiling. When she looked up from her book, she notices that he was staring back at her. She blinked owlishly before sending him a sparkling smile as she cups her free hand on the side of her mouth and says, “Nice block, captain!”

“Gah!” Kuroo instantly curled over, gripping his heart on his chest, unexpectedly blown by her cute cheer attack. “Yacchan...so cute….” He spoke in uttered nonsense that Kenma stares at him with a sour expression.

“Get a hold of yourself, Kuroo.” Kenma told him, watching his friend curled up after being attacked by a cute charm. Kenma merely rolled his eyes as Kuroo kept curling over and pinched his thighs to get a grip of himself. Kenma turned his gaze back to Yachi.

Yachi’s were widened with confusion as she asked over, “Is he okay, Kozume-san?”

“Don’t worry. He’s just being an idiot.” Kenma replied easily. 

Yachi gave an apologetic smile. ‘I guess Nekoma members have their own odd personalities too.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gahhhhh
> 
> I feel kind of upset that I couldn't make Kenma's scene with Yachi shorter because...doesn't it feel weird that it took so many pages just to write a short interaction between Kenma and Yachi? but I really tried to deliver though - it's hard. Kenma's overall not really outspoken but he can converse with people but with yachi is just...it took to a different turn lmao
> 
> What do you guys think of Yachi spending time with the Nekoma members? I might be biased at times so please share me your thoughts if I leave too much gap or something haha.
> 
> I took longer time to recheck the details of Yachi's interaction with Kenma and Kuroo this time. (if you can't tell - I sort of based Kuroo's thoughts and behaviours inspired from some fanarts of kuroyachi lmao). 
> 
> By the way, Lev's a total giant so I'm trying to figure out how he can interact with Yachi without spooking her too much haha
> 
> Thank you all for reading this chapter! See you in the next chapter!


	15. Chapter 15

The match ended with Fukurodani’s win and Yachi watched as the team did a lap of diving drills. The members groaned but do their punishment with heavy hearts. Yachi quickly prepares for the towels and water bottles to give to the members who were done with their penalties.

As she gave a water bottle to the libero, he sighed heavily before looking to the other side. “It seems like we can’t really budge our points further if we can’t find another strategy against Fukurodani's strong offense.”

Yachi gave a towel for the vice-captain, Kai. He gave a friendly smile towards Yachi for the towel before he wiped his sweat with it. “I guess we need to know what’s the best course to go against them. Our back attacks are also not improving against their defense.”

“Can’t we just try to spike in the places that are empty? Do we need to think of complicated strategies to get a point after all?” Lev came over with a worried expression.

Yaku glared, “Don't be ridiculous, it’s not that easy. Besides, Lev – you need to get your receives right! How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t just rely on your long limbs to reach the ball properly, you have to move!”

“Geh! But it’s the same thing.” Lev protested with a pout.

“It’s not! We’re going to practice your receives later so don’t even try to escape your basic skill training.” 

“Eh….Yaku-san~” Lev continued to whine.

Yachi watches their conversation with a light expression before she notices the other members finished their penalties and out of breath. Yachi quickly gives them their water bottles for them to drink.

“Thank you, Yachi. You’re a lifesaver.” Inuoka says as he panted heavily on his knees before he stood straight up and accepted the water bottle from her.

“You did great, Inuoka! I’m really amazed by how quick you are with read blocking.”

Inuoka smiles and tilts his head, “You think so? Hehe.” Inuoka felt a little bashful by her comment.

Kenma was about to walk pass by them when Yachi reaches out to him, “Kozume-san, here’s your drink.”

“Guhh….” Kenma voiced tiredly as he accepted the bottle tiredly as he drank it all in one go.

Inuoka chuckles at his action, “Kenma-san gets tired easily in doing the penalties than the actual games.”

Kenma breathes out when he finishes with his water bottle, “It’s torture. They’re torturing us.”

“He’s always a little dramatic. You’ll get used to it, Yachi.” Inuoka added with laughter in his eyes.

Yachi hands out a clean tower to the setter. “You did really well, Kozume-san. Ah, if your neck feels worse then you should apply the gel muscle again.”

“Inuoka, come here!”

The brown haired tall boy turned, “Ah, Kai-senpai is calling me. See ya!” Then dashing off to the third years who were calling for him.

Yachi opens her notebook again and inspected the scores and detailed notes that she jotted down from the previous games. Rounding a conclusion after watching the match between Nekoma and Fukurodani.

“It seems like Fukurodani are the most well-versed players so far. Their points from their spikes are higher than the number of their blockings.” Yachi concluded from her notes.

Kenma’s head perked up after hearing her words. “You counted their numbers of scored spikes too?”

Yachi nodded, “I gathered their numbers from Karasuno’s matches too but from this I’m able to draw a conclusion from Fukurodani's play like this.”

Yachi lowered her notebook to show her page to Kenma who leaned closer to her side to read it properly. Kenma was surprised by the neat and detailed layout of the writing in Yachi’s notebooks – he also spotted something in the bottom corner of the page.

“Is that…me?” Kenma asked.

He pointed to a light sketch of Kenma’s figure in a setting position. What surprised Kenma by this simple sketch was how the image was able to show that this was really him with his features.

Yachi fumbles a bit, forgetting that she just did draw a sketch of Kenma from the game, and closes her book. “A-ah! I’m so sorry! Sometimes I sketch players when I found them posing a really interesting action so – I’m sorry I drew you without your permission. I’ll tear it off right now if you don’t want – “

When Yachi was about to tear the edge of the page where Kenma’s sketch was, he reached out and stopped her hand quickly. “Don’t. It’s okay.”

“Eh?” Yachi was bewildered.

“I don’t really mind. You said you drew players? Can I see them?”

Yachi faltered a little bit, “You…want to see my sketches?”

“Un. Is it okay?” Kenma asks.

Yachi was doubtful to show it to him but decided to do it since he already saw her small sketch of him, it would be impolite if she didn’t show him her drawings since she did draw him without permission.

“Um…my drawings are not really that good but…here.” Yachi then flips to her previous pages where there were several pages shows various sketches of players from the training camp drawn in different positions.

Kenma’s eyes glued to the pages as he leaned in closer next to her, inspecting the line of her artwork closely. He was amazed. Even with the simple lines she sketched on to the page, he could see the detailed features of the figures and faces of the person she drew from. He was curious to see more of her work as Yachi shyly shows him a page where she recently drew members from the previous game of Nekoma and Fukurodani.

Bokuto’s spiking figure, Akaashi’s setting, Yaku’s receiving through a drill, Lev’s broad spike, Kuroo’s blocking arms, Tora’s jump serves and it seems like she also drew some Kenma of when he did the dump shots. Such detailed work, Kenma was even impressed by the expression on Tora’s face from Yachi’s sketch.

His eyes lingered on the sketches of him, “You draw really well, Yachi-san but I do confess I didn’t know whether you drew me differently on purpose.”

Yachi’s eyes widened, panic spread across her eyes. “Eh? Did I perhaps offend you with my drawing, Kozume-san? I’m so sorry.” She tries to bow in apology but Kenma stops her before she does.

“No, I mean – um…” He felt a little weird explaining it to her without making it awkward. He taps to the sketch of him on her page, “I mean, you drew me too nicely. I don’t look as good as that.”

Yachi blinks her eyes before she frowns in confusion, “Good as this? But Kozume-san, I tried to draw with the way I see it with my own eyes. Does it really look that strange?”

“Well,” Kenma rubbed his cheek, awkwardness ensues. “I don’t believe that I look that good in real life so…”

Yachi replied, “But Kozume-san, you’re good looking in my eyes.”

Kenma’s head did not compute for a few seconds before he actually processed her words. His felt the hitch of his breath and unconsciously froze his entire brain for a few seconds when he heard her words. His heart suddenly beats in fastened pace and an explosion of warmth spread inside his stomach.

Before he could even give out a reply, Yachi seems to realize what she just said when her entire face suddenly colored in red and her eyes shakes in panic.

“N-not that I mean you’re good looking like that, I mean – um! You are good looking, handsome even – wait, that didn’t come out right, I mean – Kozume-san, you are a good looking person in real life too. Um, realistically speaking, you are…too good looking? I mean it like in that way, not as in – ahh...”

Kenma watches as Yachi fumbles with her words, her hands shakes trying to explain her reason behind her previous statement but find no actual proper words came out so the wording came out quite strange. However, even with Kenma’s slight second hand embarrassment he felt from her, he was quite amused by her response.

She really does have a cute side to her personality.

Kenma awkwardly coughed and shifts his eyes a little. “It’s okay, Yachi-san. I understand what you mean.”

“Um…I didn’t mean to insult you, Kozume-san.” Yachi says faintly with a guilty expression.

Her brown eyes rounded up like a wounded puppy – Kenma stiffened lightly, blinking his eyes as he thought he saw two puppy-like ears coming out of her her head.

He tries to get a grip of himself when he felt his cheeks warming. ‘This is bad, even her charm attacks are sent unconsciously too.’

“I get it, Yachi-san. You don’t have to worry.” He says before he shyly voices, “Thank you.”

Yachi was a little confused but nodded nonetheless.

Afterwards there was quite an awkward tension in the air between the two of them. Kenma was one to experience in many situations where he felt himself at an awkward gap in conversations. But he did feel a little bad for the other girl who seemed to look pained each time a second pass between them. 

Maybe he’ll try to break the air to save her out of her embarrassment? He did initiate the topic of her drawing after all. 

Kenma eventually blurted out again. “Do you have any other works of your art that I can see?”

Yachi blinks out of her stupor and nodded, “Y-yes, I do! Um…I have an account if you’d like to look for it but I should warn you that not all of my work is that great.”

Kenma shook his head, “It’s fine, I’m curious to see your other works.”

Yachi nodded before she took out her phone and showed him her account where she eventually showed him several of her posted works online. Kenma hums as he showed interest to her drawings. He definitely liked her style of drawing, she was also quite good.

A talented artist like her is rare to find.

“Do you do commissions, Yachi-san?”

Yachi shook her head, “I never considered it before…”

“I’m interested in commissioning some pieces.”

Yachi’s eyes widened as she grips her phone and book to her chest, “Eh? Really? Are you sure?”

Kenma nodded, “I’ve been actually trying to look for some artist to make something for me for me but it’s been hard to find with the style I liked so – I’d like to request a commission if that’s okay.”

“I’ve never tried doing commissions before though so I’m not confident if I can sell it to you. But I’d like to give it a try. What kind of drawing would you like me to make?”

It turns out Kenma have some sort of online platform where he shares live streams of games so he also liked to have some art so he can post on his account. Since Yachi understands what kind of piece he wanted to have, she eventually agreed to make some for him.

“Then is it okay to share your number with me? We can exchange info about the commission.” Kenma offered.

He kept surprising himself the longer he speaks with her, especially to someone who he just met recently.

Never in his life that he would ask out a girl’s phone number outwardly like this but he didn’t really want to make things complicated. He just want to keep in touch with her – for the commission, of course.

“Okay.”

They proceed to exchange their numbers before talking more about Kenma’s online streaming platform. As Yachi and Kenma talked longer in their conversation, several pairs of eyes were staring at them intently from the other side of the court.

“Do you think they’re talking about volleyball or something else?” Hinata hums as he watches Yachi smiling and talking animatedly with Kenma, showing her notebook to him as he leaned in closer to her for a better look.

“They look like they’re having fun.” Kageyama replied bitterly, sipping to his water bottle with frustration. ‘He’s too close to her, dammit.’

Hinata grits his teeth, “This rotation manager system is too cruel. I can’t believe we don’t get to spend much time with Yachi-san and Shimizu-senpai.”

“With or without Yachi-chan, you both should be able to look for your own selves properly. Yachi-san is doing her best at Nekoma so you should also do your best here.” Sugawara came with a nagging tone.

“But Sugawara-senpai, I have a gut feeling that something else might be happening with Yachi-san when she’s not with us.” Hinata retorted.

Asahi, who was near them, shivered, “Please don’t jinx it.”

Sugawara rolled his eyes instead, “Focus on your own training first, Hinata. And don’t worry about, Yachi-chan. She’ll report to us if anything happens.”

“ _Osu._ ” Hinata grumbled in reply.

Before Kageyama moves to prepare for the next game, his eyes went back to Yachi again and frowned. He really didn’t like the way the Nekoma’s setter stood too close to her.

Kageyama’s hand gripped to his water bottle tighter as he watched Yachi and Kenma from his side of the court.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHHAHAHA - more interactions between kenma and yachi JUST BECAUSE lol
> 
> Anyways, this was kind of funny to write because I couldn't figure out how to make a smooth plot flow with yachi spending her time with the nekoma team members. it's easier to centre the story to karasuno since they are the main characters of the story but it's also a challenge to make other teams the main character as well. (you could tell that im struggling with this chapter IM SO SORRY EVERYONE :(((((( i promise to improve and bring you much better chapters in the future). 
> 
> hinata and kageyama appeared at the end of the chapter and they uhhh kinda dont like the way things are now lmao (im so sorry my boys but this is for the development of the story haha). 
> 
> Yachi's going to stay a little bit more with the nekoma team before she goes to fukurodani next. i'm sure some of you are looking forward to that but before entering the future chapters, i'm very very interested in your thoughts and opinions or maybe some suggestions about yachi and her time with the fukurodani team next. it's so fun to read your comments so i'm always getting inspirations from you all - it's so great! Please share your thoughts in the comments down below :3 
> 
> This is the last chapter for this week! Every time im working i always look forward to updating the new chapters at the weekends. this week feel extremely long for me so im so glad i made it in time to update this story wohoooo. But I also have to study as well since i have another quiz this morning aaaaaah - okay, i gotta be ready for it.
> 
> Thank you all for reading the story until this far! See you all next weeeeeeeeeeek!! :D
> 
> にほんごはむずかしですでもハイキューはだいすき！やちちゃんはとってもかわいいい :3  
> じゃまったらいしゅみんあさん！


	16. Chapter 16

Lev huffed tiredly before he sat on the ground and stretched his legs. “Finally, not a penalty at last!”

The game finishes with Nekoma’s win against Shinzen. As Yachi continues to support the team with their drinks and towels, she also helps to mop the floor since there were some areas that needed to be clean.

“Yachi is so diligent, I’m surprised she does these things without us telling her.” Yaku noted as he finishes his water while watching Yachi mop a spot on the court.

Lev smiled happily as his eyes placed on the blonde haired starry girl. “Having Yachi-chan in our team is like a vitamin boost. It’s so exciting to see her. She’s so small and tiny, she looks like she can be knocked away by a wind so easily with that height. Yaku-san too, I guess.”

The rest of the Nekoma members watched as Lev received a hit from Yaku’s feet as the tall half-Russian boy cried out in pain from the punishment kicks.

“That’s what he gets for mentioning Yaku’s height.” Kai commented.

Yachi came back with the mop in her hand and looked concernedly over Lev who was being scolded for the millionth times by Yaku today. “Is Lev-kun usually like this?”

“This is actually pretty common in our practices nowadays but Lev is getting better since Yaku is such a reliable person to teach him some discipline.” Kai replied with a friendly smile.

“Is that so.” Yachi hums as she watches Lev whined longer with a pouting expression before Yaku nagged him about how he needed to respect his senpai.

Before Yachi was about to ask more about Lev’s common scolding, Shibayama called Yachi to the side to look for some sport tapes. Yachi instantly turns to him and helped the first year boy to look for it inside the first aid kit bag.

Kai watches Yachi from his spot, seeing how she was sincerely helping the team members fully. He actually didn’t expect Yachi to be such a reliable manager, able to adapt to the team quickly by midday and supported the team in various aspects.

So far she had showcased how much she was reliable as a manager when she introduces the data she collected on their individual as well as team’s play with scores and analysis she gathered from the games she watched.

She was also seen to be consulting with the coach in order to understand about the volley terms that she doesn’t really understand, showing how much she was willing to learn about volleyball despite her lack of knowledge.

Honestly it was really admirable that Kai thought it was such a waste that she wasn’t Nekoma’s actual manager. “It would be nice to have someone like her in our team.” Kai mused.

Kuroo steps in, standing next to Kai as he joins to watch Yachi as well. “It certainly can boost our morale.”

“That’s one of the examples but I meant - we might need to consider having our own manager to support our team from now on.” Kai replied.

Kuroo quirked his eyebrow, “You mean an actual official manager for the team? Did you even remember what happened the last time we had a manager to support our team properly?”

Kai shivered, “Yeah – it wasn’t a good outcome but,” Kai stares at Yachi with a thoughtful look, “Having Yachi-san in our team made me realize how much convenient it would be for us to have extra hands to support our team.”

“ _A proper manager,_ that is. It’ll take a while to find someone as good as Karasuno’s or Fukurodani’s managers, they’re literally the ones we actually need to properly support our team.” Kuroo voiced, drinking his water from his bottle.

“I know. This time we’ll have to do proper recruitment.” Kai piped.

“Ha! Yeah – sure, I get it. Don’t rub that to my face again.” Kuroo replied with a painful tone of laughter, feeling slightly bitter from the sentiment the vice-captain said.

Yachi was currently helping Shibiyama wrapping his fingers with sports tape. She sat closely next to him as she helps instructing him how to properly tape his fingers without feeling uncomfortable.

Kuroo’s eyes settled on Yachi’s dainty fingers which were hovering over Shibiyama’s fingers – pointing to how he should wrap the tape properly. Kuroo’s eyes glued with such focus when he sees Yachi holding Shibiyama’s hand and guided him how to roll the tape. The said first year boy was flushing his cheeks as he shyly watches Yachi with nervousness, nodding along her words and stealing glances to her face every few seconds.

“You’re going to burn them with that glare, Kuroo. Stop it.” Kai voiced when he sees Kuroo’s eyes glued on the two first years with such intensity.

“I’m not doing it.” Kuroo replied – his eyes kept glaring at Shibiyama’s blushing face who was looking at Yachi with rosy eyes.

Kai shifted his eyes to point the strong of his hand, holding the water bottle to tight in his grip. “You’re literally gripping your bottle like you’re choking it.”

“I just have a strong grip.”

“Kuroo.”

“….fine.”

-

Yachi was so out of energy that she didn’t realize how hungry she was when the food was placed in front of her and she took a bite of the warm rice from her bowl and dig in to her lunch with heartfelt glee. The cafeteria wasn’t as crowded as she thought it would be as some members of the training camps were still at the gym and the rest were somewhere else taking their breaks.

So Yachi was able to get the first warm and delicious batch of food from Kiyoko and Kaori for today. Kiyoko generously gave a large amount of _karaage_ to Yachi’s plate which Yachi was very happy about. The crispy chicken was delicious and the miso soup warms her stomach perfectly. Yachi felt like she was in bliss, eating Kiyoko’s cooking for lunch was like a blessing.

“Hoho – someone seems very hungry.”

Yachi looked up from her food tray and saw the familiar grey-haired setter of Karasuno came and sat in front of her with his own tray placed on the table.

“Sugawara-senpai, hello!” Yachi greeted him.

Followed by Sugawara, the rest of the third year members of Karasuno also came and sat next to him, additionally with Daichi sitting next to Yachi’s right side.

“Do you mind if we sit with you, Yachi-san?” Daichi asked.

Yachi smiles brightly, “I don’t mind at all. I hope that I don’t ruin your appetite though.”

Asahi and Sugawara laughs at her comment. “Of course not, Yachi-chan. Come on, let’s eat.” Sugawara spoke up as he urged the first year manager to continue eating.

“Yachi-saaaaaaaaan.” A voice came in hurried tone to Yachi’s left, seeing a blur of orange hair hurrying to place his food tray on Yachi’s left empty seat. “It’s been such a long time we see each other!” Hinata said.

“You literally just saw her a few minutes ago at the gym.” Kageyama added, sitting on Hinata’s opposite side.

“Ugh – that’s not what I meant, Bakayama.” Hinata scowled.

Kageyama scoffed in return. Sugawara patted Kageyama’s shoulder to calm him down, “ _Maa~_ let’s just eat in peace, guys.”

“ _Itadakimasu.” “Itadakimasu!”_ Both Hinata and Kageyama chanted together and continued to eat lunch with everyone else.

Yachi was drinking her soup when Hinata began to ask Yachi about her time with Nekoma.

“Any difficulties you faced when you were with Nekoma, Yachi-san?” Hinata asked.

Yachi chuckled at Hinata who was munching through his food as he asked the question. “So far it’s a lot different to work with another team since I don’t know them well but everyone is nice and I learn a lot.”

“That’s a relief. See, I told you that Yachi-chan is capable.” Sugawara motioned towards the two first-year-boys who were worried soundly for her for the entire day.

“While it’s admirable to see you working hard, please don’t forget to take care of yourself too.” Daichi added with a warm smile.

“Yes, senpai. I’ll make sure to remember it.” Yachi nodded obediently.

However, Hinata frowned and kept inching for another answer, “You sure there isn’t anyone troubling you, Yachi-san?”

Yachi was a little flustered when Hinata leaned in close to her for a lower-toned question. It wasn’t like there was any secrets to share either so she was unsure what Hinata meant.

“Um…I’m pretty sure that everyone is nice to me so far. So you don’t have to worry, Hinata.”

“Yeah but what about that sneaky - I mean – the captain? He looked real interested in you ever since I got here.” Hinata asked in a hushed tone.

Yachi could only gave him a sheepish smile. “Kuroo-san is nice to me. I don’t feel bothered by him throughout the entire practice. I’m sure you’ll find him a reliable person too once you get to know him.”

“Really? Then…if you say so.” Hinata leaned back and smiled, “I’m glad you’re having fun at Nekoma. If there’s anything you can’t tell to me then you can lean on to Kenma or Inuoka. They’re my cool friends!”

Yachi smiled back brightly, “They’re both really nice people. I’m glad I met your friends, Hinata.”

Hinata hummed as he nodded before he faltered a little bit, “But…it’ll be better if you stay at our manager for the entire week. It’s so sad that you have to rotate to so many teams.”

“Even though we have so many advisors, teachers and coaches as supervisors of the training camp - we are actually short on helping hands.” Daichi agreed. “This was something the other captains mentioned as well. It has been like this for several years now.”

“So if there are more managers around then it’ll be easier without the rotation schedule? I guess that makes sense.” Asahi commented.

“Well I’m just super glad we have two managers in our team. We’ve been having so much luck ever since Yachi joined our team.” Sugawara added with a bright expression.

Yachi blinks her eyes in surprise by the statement, “E-eh? I’m not a lucky charm…”

Daichi added, “Don’t sell yourself short, Yachi-san. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be able to come here without the donation poster you made all over our school’s neighborhood.”

“You also helped a bunch to Shimizu. We’re all ever so grateful for your presence in the team, Yachi-chan.” Sugawara pointed, “You even helped the troublemaker boys to pass their exams – you’re basically our lucky charm by now.”

Asahi chuckled before he also added, “I agree that having Yachi-san in our team is quite a wonderful development. I wouldn’t imagine that our volleyball team can receive sufficient funds as well. The posters helped tremendously.” Asahi commented as well.

“Is t-that so…” Yachi’s eyes widened at the third years’ words before she wonders over the world ‘lucky charm’ inside her head. It was embarrassing that all of her hard work were being acknowledged by other people, Yachi rarely gets that kind of attention despite her always doing her best in something. “I only thought of helping you all to reach your wishes so…” She trailed off.

Hinata beamed at Yachi, “But we already know that you helped us a lot. I think you deserve the title of Karasuno’s lucky charm!”

Warmth filled Yachi’s cheeks and chest. She felt incredibly touched, hearing such compliments from friends and all the senpai she looked up to.

She wouldn’t imagine being in this position back when she was a regular school girl with no extracurricular clubs or any major goals in life but – ‘Lucky charm of Karasuno’, despite its embarrassing title, it was such an accomplishment for her.

“Lucky charm…” Yachi smiles to herself, cheeks flushed with pink tinted color and her lips pulled into a sweet smile. “It’s a nice name.”

The rest of the boys who witnessed Yachi’s sweet smile instantly melted at the sight. Like a cute baby duckling who looked very proud of her own achievements, the third years’ glowed with pride as Hinata beamed brighter at Yachi’s reaction towards the newest title she receives.

Kageyama watches her expression with focus. Seeing the way her cheeks colored and her eyes gleamed with happiness as she words out ‘lucky charm’ from her pink lips. The edge of his lips unconsciously mirrored her smile as his own lips tugged into a small smile.

He agrees wholeheartedly to call Yachi as ~~his~~ their lucky charm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I survived another week! I think it's around three weeks that I wrote this story and I'm honestly surprised that I was uploading this chapter cause my mind went - "eh? chapter 16 already? how?". But that's probably because I updated three chapters every week since a few weeks ago so I guess that's why I had so many chapters posted so far. 
> 
> But welcome to a new chapter of Yachi Effect! Ah, just to let you all know - I'm actually not really happy with the chapters that I'm posting this week because...it's not the best chapter that I wrote(?) I feel like I could have done so much better but maybe it's because I'm such a slow and detailed person that I keep the pace slow. But I figured it out now that it's really freaking slow. The chapters for the first tokyo training camp itself is like...a lot and I just realized that's it's kind of...not good(?) at least for me because I realized that my plot is moving soo slowww (and I make it up by adding a lot of fluff which is what I intended this story to be about but still). 
> 
> I'm still learning and trying to make up for all of gaps and mistakes that I make. I'm rereading my chapters every time I update my story and learned that it's so easy to spot a mistake than just...reading it lmao - anyways I'm not making much sense and I'm rambling so I'm going to just say it. 
> 
> I think I have to level up the pace for my plot a little bit. Either by trying to incorporate many scenes in one chapter instead of like multi-chapters for an arc or just write a lot of timeskips haha. I don't know how it'll turn out but I'm trying to reconsider how I should write my story per chapters. 
> 
> lmao I'm rambling too much here but yeah - thanks for reading this chapter! I'll see you in the next one.


	17. Chapter 17

After lunch time, Yachi spared no time wasted and gets ready for the next training session in the afternoon. She helped the managers carried the freshly washed sports vests to the gym. As Yachi tries to carry a whole basket of fresh laundry by herself, she also had to carry a bag of freshly cleaned water bottles on her right arm so she made quite a deal in walking her way towards the gym with all of her arms full.

Then along the way in the corridor, she suddenly felt a hand reached out for the basket in her arms and lifted it off from her. Yachi’s eyes widened in surprise, unexpected by the hands and also the one who came to pick it up from her.

“Tsukishima-san?” She was bewildered to see the blonde haired glasses boy next to her as he carries the basket easily in his own hands.

“You look like you’re about to topple over with so many things.” He drawled, easily carrying the basket as he walked beside her on their way to the gym.

Yachi shifted the bag on her hand, now finding the weight from her hands lighter and much better. “I just wanted to make shorter trips instead of going back and forth – but thank you very much for your help, Tsukishima-san.”

“Just call me Tsukishima. Don’t worry about it.”

“Eh? A-alright.”

Their way to the gym was quite, save for the sounds of the people in the distance, but Yachi felt incredibly weird being next to Tsukishima by herself. Like she had to say something to cut the silence between them because she felt incredibly awkward somehow.

But Tsukishima cuts her train of thoughts, “Don’t stress yourself for not holding a conversation.”

“W-what?” Yachi was caught off guard.

Surprisingly, Tsukishima smirked at her reaction. “It’s written all over your face. Seriously, Yachi-san, just take a breather or two. You don’t have to think about everything too much.”

“D-do I really look that obvious?” Yachi asked. She heard someone said those words before and she distinctively remembered that it was Yamaguchi who voiced that when he walked her home last time.

Yachi falters, “I guess I may look like I’m overthinking too much.” _Stupid Hitoka!_ She thought to herself.

Tsukishima shrugged as he gave her a side eyed glance. “Hm... it’s not that bothersome though but if you think about little details too much you might end up getting hurt without noticing.”

Yachi perked up, “That’s…that’s actually right. Perhaps I just had to do my best but I worry too much that’s why I become so worrisome like this. The outcome isn’t as planned as I thought it could be.” She ended up with a light sheepish chuckle.

This time Tsukishima’s steps slowed down before he looked back to her fully, “Hey – why do you work so hard?”

The sudden question caught her off guard, “Hn? What do you mean ‘Why I work hard’? Shouldn’t I work hard and do my best?”

“Well, it’s just you worked so hard for the team even when you’re not a regular member or even a player yet…you worked the hardest out of all of us.”

“That’s not true.” Yachi rebutted, “The others worked hard as well and besides….I haven’t caught up to the rest of you so I need to catch up learning volleyball.”

Tsukishima furrowed his eyebrows, “That’s the thing I don’t understand. It’s just volleyball – what’s the use of getting so worked up?”

For the first time in a while, Yachi finally understand the brief personality of the tall blonde haired glasses boy. While he might seem good in playing volleyball, he doesn’t necessarily stand out as a player compared to the rest of the team members. In fact, he doesn’t show that expression that he was also enjoying the matches.

It’s like he’s doing volleyball just for the sake of it. Now he’s questioning why the other members worked so hard for something that could be just a fleeting goal or dreams to be the best and go to nationals.

“Tsukishima-kun. Don’t you want to go to nationals?” Yachi asked simply.

Tsukishima didn’t reply for a few seconds before he sighed, “It’d be nice if we go to nationals but for now…it’s all like a distant goal the team is trying to pursue.”

Yachi takes it all in. So Tsukishima isn’t denying the wish of going to nationals but he doesn’t really find the motivation for it.

By now Yachi sort of understands of what Tsukishima is like.

Yachi looked forward as they both continued to walk. “I wouldn’t call it a hopeless wish or something like that but…I just feel like I want to do something more for myself. Becoming a manager was something I never thought I would be but – “

Yachi remembers Hinata’s and Kageyama’s joy when they were able to do the fast quicks, Asahi’s roars when he was able to spike through tall blockers, Nishinoya’s agile moves across the floor as he saved a ball from touching the ground, Kiyoko’s efforts in trying to keep up with the scores and analyzes with the team of her findings –

All the things that the members and her new friends showed how volleyball changed her life little by little with their passion leaking out to influence her positively.

Yachi smiled brightly, “ – I found an amazing world I get to be a part of. You also happen to be inside of it so – it’s something that I find myself motivated to work with my duties as a manager.”

“Huh?” Tsukishima responded in a slightly surprised expression.

Yachi beamed at him, her eyes full of stars and beautiful dream. “You don’t need a lofty reason to start something or be good at something. That was something Shimizu-senpai told me before and I realized how her words are true now. I can’t really give you a confident answer to why I work hard or why the others do it as well. I think you have the answers already within you, Tsukishima-kun but that’s something you’ll have to speak out for yourself.”

Tsukishima hummed, considering her words. “You certainly sound like you knew the answers though.”

Yachi laughs lightly, “Oh I really wish that's the case!”

Tsukishima shook his head as a small smile appeared on his lips. “For someone who’s an over-thinker, you really do get the gist of the details on something like this.”

“I guess that’s the perks of being a villager B.”

Tsukishima snorted out a small laugh. “Yeah. You say such odd comebacks, Yachi-san.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She laughs along with him.

-

Yaku hissed as he took off his kneepads and sees the blooming bruise on his knee. He is usually used to getting such bruises on his skin but sliding across the floor with a busted knee like this felt really uncomfortable. He should have got a thicker kneepad so it wouldn’t hurt as much but he couldn’t find it anywhere in his bag earlier.

So he tried to treat off the bruise with a cooling gel in hopes to makes it better. Practice was starting in fifteen minutes so he had a bunch of time to get ready for then.

“Damn it.” He cursed when he flinched upon the cold gel touching his skin.

“Yaku-san! Are you okay?” Yachi came towards him as she held several fresh clean towels in her hands before she puts it aside as she sits down next to him. She inspected the bruise on his knee and frowned, “That won’t do. We should have it compressed – please wait, Yaku-san. I’ll be right back.”

“I can handle it – “ before Yaku could finish the sentence, Yachi already ran away to get the equipment. She quickly grabbed several things from the other side of the court as Yaku watched her pulled an ice pack from the portable cooler and several bandages and kneepad.

Yachi came back quickly as she crouched next to him, “It’s going to be just a tad bit cold.” She warned gently as she wrapped the ice pack with a towel and gently pressed it against his knee.

Yaku hissed in pain when he felt the cool ice touched his knee but find the pain slowly ease down as the minute passes by. Yachi held it to his knee and rolled out the white bandage. “It’s better to compress with ice rather than a cooling gel, the bruise will also heal quickly like this.”

“Thanks for the help, Yachi-san.” He said seeing her hand holding the ice pack to his bruised knee. “I lost my usual padded kneepads so my knee was busted ever since this morning.”

Yachi frowns a little, “Oh…Yaku-san if you have any discomfort please inform me right away. It won’t do if you keep playing with an injury like this.”

Yaku shook his head, “It’s just a small bruise – Ouch!”

“Sorry! Um, please don’t move too much.” Yachi warned gently as she pressed on the cold compress. “We should hold this for ten to fifteen minutes. Make sure you also do this two to three times a day to heal your bruise.”

“R-right.” Yaku hissed in pain as he held on to his knees. Seriously, he should have been used by this but every time he just worked a little harder – his knees are always telling another story. “I’m sorry to bother your time, Yachi-san.”

“Don’t worry, Yaku-san. It’s my job to help you.” Yachi gave him a friendly smile, “It would be troubling if Nekoma don’t have their dependable libero during practice but if the pain doesn’t go away then I suggest we might have to check it to a doctor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Yaku says as he reached out for the ice pack, “I’ll hold this one. You can continue with the rest of the preparation.”

“You sure? I’m done with everything though.” Yachi replied, “We just need to wrap it properly before putting a new kneepad.”

Yaku smiles lightly before he grabbed the hand that Yachi pressed the cold ice on, gently lifting it off from the ice and switched it with his hand instead. Yachi was a little surprised by such gesture, he did it so smoothly.

“It’s fine, Yachi-san. Tell you what – I’ll call for you if I need any more help.” Yaku reassured her.

“Okay. You promise?”

Yaku smiles wider, gently poking her right cheek. “I promise. Now go or the others would cry like a baby if they have their bottles unfilled.”

Yachi laughs from his words and nodded, getting up to carry the towels and runs off to another corner to put them down on the benches.

Yaku watches Yachi with a smile, his chest felt lighter when he sees her expression. She sure was cute. Honestly Yaku felt the butterflies in his stomach when Yachi tended to him earlier. Her sweet soft scent and her light touches on his knee. He managed to brush his hand against hers and Yaku couldn't help but blush at the previous action he did.

-

Through the end of the day, spending her time as Nekoma’s temporary manager was quite eventful. She learned that dealing with people who are outside of her circles were quite eye opening. Yachi learns that she still lacked a lot of knowledge when it comes to volleyball and how to support them fully.

Still she did try her best. She made sure that all of the members were accommodated and she attentively followed Coach Naoi and Nekomata-sensei orders when they needed her. Never in her life she thought she was able to be so quick in attending to her managerial duties before. It was quite exhilarating and Yachi finds herself having fun while doing it.

All in all, her vibrant expression wasn’t left unnoticed by Nekoma’s members.

Kuroo loves to rile up the members of Karasuno who were watching like a hawk from the other side of the room. Whenever Yachi came up to him and talked about their scores, he smoothly leaned against her while lowers his height so that he reads the pages on her notes properly.

Unknown to Yachi, Kuroo listens “closely” to her. Hanging his head near her face, their cheeks barely touching each other as he stood closely right behind her. Kuroo lifted his eyes from this position and sees the seething faces of Karasuno’s members, Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Hinata, who were gritting their teeth when they saw how close Kuroo stood behind Yachi.

Kuroo’s lips tugged wider in a smirk. He can imagine the sounds they make already.

Yachi looked up from her note and blinked her pretty brown eyes at Kuroo before her cheeks reddens at their close proximity. “K-Kuroo-san?”

Kuroo smiles warmly and pinched gently at Yachi’s cheek. “Thank you for the insights, Karasuno-chan.”

“You’re we-welcome.” Yachi replied in a little stutter before she steps away from him, widening the gap between them.

‘That caught me off guard! His face was so close!’ Yachi’s mind screamed in her head. Still, she needed to get a grip of herself. It’s so cheeky of him to do that.

Handsome features and sharp jaw, Yachi wondered whether Kuroo knows how handsome he was because he really made Yachi’s heart beats like crazy in her chest.

‘Handsome guys like him are so unfair.’ Yachi thought before she continues on with her managerial duties.

It wasn’t only Kuroo who made these kinds of moves. Several Nekoma members were already shown to care for Yachi despite her being their temporary manager for one day.

Yaku likes to pat her head when she did a great job at assisting. Lev loves to bounce at Yachi and holds her hands to press on her soft palms. When she asked him why he does it, Lev merely responded.

“Your palms feel like a cat’s paw, Yachi-san. It’s so soft!”

Yachi merely gave him an embarrassed smile despite her confusion to his response. What an odd boy.

Inuoka’s energy was all over the place when he comes near Yachi. When Yachi compliments him for his good play, Inuoka was so happy that he started to lightly jumps on his feet. Sometimes his energy reminded Yachi of Hinata when he was being praised.

Others like Tora, who was a little bit dramatic but overall sweet to Yachi. Kenma, Kai, Fukunaga, Teshiro and Shibiyama were very polite to her when they worked together. It certainly gave her a piece of mind when they were so cooperative.

Though sometimes they do strange antics as well but they are all nice.

After practice hours were over, Yachi collected all the sports vests and towels from the members and have Eri and Kiyoko head over to do the laundry as scheduled. Yachi helped to clean up the gym before she went to wash the water bottles outside at the handwashing station.

When she starts cleaning the water bottles on her own then she paused for a moment as she looked up. The moon was really bright and the night was a little cold despite being summer time. She could hear the crickets accompanying her and the gentle wind blowing by.

What a night, it’s certainly peaceful. Yachi finds herself at ease as she hums lightly to a tune and washed the remaining bottles.

Another running water from her left side caught her attention as she looked aside to see Kuroo washing his hands.

Yachi greeted him, “ _Otsukaresamadesu **[1]**_ Kuroo-san.”

He grinned back, “ _Otsukare~_ do you still have something else to do after this?”

Yachi shook her head, “No. I’ll be joining dinner with others.”

“Is that so.” He says while took one of the uncleaned bottle and start washing it.

Yachi looked up, “Oh, it’s okay, Kuroo-san. I can handle it.”

“I don’t mind helping besides it’ll get to job done faster.”

Yachi smiled, grateful for his help. “Thank you, Kuroo-san. You helped me out so much today.”

Kuroo furrowed his eyebrows, “What do you mean? You were the one who helped me and the team today. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be progressing our practice as smooth as this.”

Yachi felt the feeling of pride and happiness spread across her chest. She was happy that her efforts were helpful in the end. “I’m glad…I had a lot fun with Nekoma team today.”

“I can tell. You fit in our team perfectly. You sure you’re just a new manager?”

Yachi chuckled, “Kuroo-san sure likes to joke around a lot.”

Kuroo laughs lightly, already cleaning the last bottle before he decided to “accidentally” sprayed some water to Yachi’s way. Yachi gasped when she felt the cold water droplets on her.

“Kuroo-san!” She yelled at him. 

“Oops.” He chuckled loudly before Yachi did the unexpected thing to return his gesture by spraying the water straight from the water faucet as she turned it on to the highest pressure and pointed it to his way.

Kuroo yelled in shock when the cold water hit his upper body, he then gasped. “Yacchan! Okay, this means war!”

Yachi squealed when Kuroo sprayed the water from his faucet on to her with the same amount of water pressure coming out, drenching her upper body as well. Yachi laughs loudly before she sprayed him again and they both ended up drenched with water after a few minutes of their short water fight.

They cooled off their laughter afterwards and Kuroo made a joke about not taking a bath after this because he’s already wet but Yachi warned him that he should take a bath right or else he’ll smell to the next morning.

“I’ll take these back to the kitchen but I need to check the gym for a bit. You can go first, Kuroo-san.” Yachi told him as she grabbed all the water bottle in a basket so she can carry it easily.

Kuroo hummed, his face was still smiling. He shook his head to shake the water from his hair and Yachi now realized that his usual-styled-up hair damped down. He surprisingly looked a lot younger with his hair down, somehow his styled up hair gave the impression of him being so much older like a young adult.

‘He shakes himself like a cat, that’s funny.’ Yachi giggled at the view she sees.

“Don’t be out for too long and eat dinner quick, Yacchan.” He reminded her.

“ _Osu_ captain!” Yachi saluted.

Kuroo felt his insides gushing at the cuteness she showed and before he could crumble down by her cute attack, he smiled wider and patted her wet head. “I’ll see you later.”

Yachi nodded and watched him leave before she heads towards the gym to do a last minute check.

* * *

[1] _Otsukaresamadesu_ – a term used for to say “Thank you for your hard work today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you really tell that I'm biased? lol
> 
> I feel like I want to emphasize a little bit more on Tsukishima's development with Yachi without relating things to volleyball in the future because despite them being in a team together - I feel like, it would be cooler if Tsukishima and Yachi "get to know each other" outside of volleyball, if yknow what im saying lol. Especially since Tsukishima right now is not really invested in volleyball but we'll get on to that part later in future chapter haha.
> 
> This chapter was a struggle to write cause I wanted to make a bridge to Fukurodani's moment with Yachi but it was like..."how should I do it? just randomly out of nowhere??" I was struggling so much on how to write the chapter properly but you know whaattt trying to write according to plan is very difficult in practice hahaha. But yeah since this is fanfic so I shouldn't be too hard on myself on making things perfect lol i just want to write whatever. 
> 
> I had to like research a bit on how to treat bruises on athletes cause i don't want to make a mistake or something lol. By the wayyy what do you all think about the last scene?? I had to like hit myself several times because it was making me asddfkjsjdfalksdlajbsfkjba hahaha i just love kuroyachi (could you tell that im kind of biased right here lol). 
> 
> That's all for this chapter! See you in the next!


	18. Chapter 18

There wasn’t really anyone left when she looked back at the gym besides some Shinzen Ubugawa team and several Fukurodani members wrapping up their practice. Yachi inspected the court where Nekoma had their last match and nodded to herself, making sure that nothing was left behind.

She was still carrying the basket that holds all Nekoma’s clean water bottles. She just had to put them at the kitchen and then she can join the others for dinner.

As Yachi walks down the hallway, she was passing by another gym when someone just came out through the door. Upon seeing the person, Yachi recognized him and greeted.

“Good evening, Akaashi-san.”

“Good evening, Yachi-san. Are you done for today?” He asked as he stepped out.

She nodded, “Yes. I’m bringing these over to the kitchen and join everyone for dinner. Are you also done, Akaashi-san?”

Akaashi nodded with a tired sigh, “I could barely escape Bokuto-san’s extra practice. I’m already hungry.”

Yachi smiled, “Let’s go to the cafeteria together. Ah, they’re cooking some beef cutlets for the menu tonight. I heard that Kaori-san is really good at cooking.”

“It’s her turn to cook tonight? Well now I can’t wait to eat.” Akaashi replied, a smile resonates in his words.

Yachi chuckles lightly before she shivered when she felt a wind passing by. It was only then when Akaashi noticed, “Yachi-san. I couldn't help but ask…why are you soaking wet?”

Yachi replied in an embarrassed expression, “Ah…there was a little accident when I washed these bottles earlier. Kuroo-san managed to spray me with water.”

“He poured an entire gallon of water on you?”

Yachi smiled sheepishly, “Not exactly. He sprayed the water straight from the faucet.”

Akaashi furrowed his eyebrows, “How troublesome.” He commented.

“Don’t worry. I managed to repay his accident back with double effort.” Yachi piped up.

Akaashi laughs, his voice smooth and light to Yachi’s ears. ‘What a nice laugh.’ She thought.

“You did a good job. Ah – “ Akaashi then took off his current Fukurodani jacket and wrapped it on Yachi’s shoulder. “You should wear this. You wouldn’t want to get sick for tomorrow.”

“E-eh? I’m okay, Akaashi-san. Besides I’m not that cold.” She tries to push his jacket away but Akaashi insisted.

“I wouldn’t want our manager to be sick for tomorrow. You’re taking care of our team so you should be in full energy.” He responded with a polite smile, tugging the jacket close to her upper body so it won’t fall.

Yachi responded with a brief, “A-ah…okay.” And slid her arms into the sleeves of his jackets. It was bigger than she expected but it did snug her comfortably, she felt warmer than before. “Thank you, Akaashi-san. You’re very kind.”

When Akaashi slid his hand on Yachi’s neck, his fingers gently brushed against the skin of her neck before he brushed the edge of her locks from the collars of his jacket so that her hair won’t be tucked inside. Yachi’s heart felt like she was on edge by the gesture.

‘That surprised me.’ She thought.

Akaashi leaned down and looked at her, a gentle smile on his charming face. “Is it comfortable?”

“Y-yes! Th-thank you, Akaashi-san.”

“No problem.”

They both proceed to walk in silence on their way to cafeteria while Yachi tries to ignore her loud beating heart and her burning face – Akaashi’s fingers slightly felt the jitters of electricity running through his skin.

He couldn’t forget on how Yachi’s skin felt so soft against the tips of his fingers.

-

When Yachi picks up food for her dinner, Kaori looked at her with a smug look while looking at her jacket. “Nice jacket you have there, Yachi-chan.”

Yachi felt her cheeks flared up, “A-ah, someone lent me because I’m a bit drenched earlier.”

Kaori then pouts, “That won’t do. You should take care of yourself better, Yachi-chan. Here – have more of miso soup, you need to be warm enough.”

Kaori added a generous scoop of miso soup in her bowl and Yachi could already smell the amazing scent of the soup. Her stomach warms at the food she received. “Thank you so much, Kaori-san.”

“Aw, your welcome! Oh – look at you, you’re so cute! You fit perfectly in our school’s jacket.” Kaori gushed as she reaches out to pinch Yachi’s cheek.

Yachi could only smile in defeat. It seems like there are more people who are fond of touching her cheeks lately. Yachi thanked the older girl one more time before she went and look for an empty spot on one of the tables.

As she was eating her dinner, several trays were placed near her at that moment. “Yachi-san, do you mind if we join?”

Yachi looked up to see the bright face of Hinata. He was followed by Kenma and Kageyama who seats on the same table as hers. She nodded, “Sure.”

Yachi smiles in amusement as she sees the amount of food on Hinata’s and Kageyama’s plates while hers and Kenma were at a moderate amount. As Kenma sits down, he glanced at the jacket Yachi was wearing and asked.

“Are you sick, Yachi-san?”

Yachi shook her head, feeling a little shy that she had to answer this question because of what happened. “No. Someone lent me their jacket because I’m a little wet after washing the bottles earlier.”

Kenma hummed as he tilts his head, “Did Kuroo did something to you? He was also wet earlier.”

Yachi faltered, “Oh that…he was just joking around and playing with water when we washed the bottles.”

Hinata widened his eyes and leaned to Yachi. “Eh? Yachi-san are you okay? You can’t be sick!”

Kageyama grunted as he pulled Hinata back from the close proximity. “Cool down, idiot. You’re screaming to her face.”

Yachi places her hand on her chest, a bit surprised by Hinata’s worrisome reaction. “It’s okay. I’m not feeling sick or anything. I was feeling a little cold earlier but now I’m okay.”

Hinata nodded and grumbled, picking his rice, “ _Mou_ , what is your captain doing, Kenma?”

Kenma’s lips tugged a little, “He’s an idiot, that’s all I can say.”

Hinata rolls his eyes as he munches on his rice, “Never mind that. So! Was it fun being with Nekoma, Yachi-san? Is Karasuno better than them? Of course we are, right?”

Kenma lifted one of his eyebrow, “I’m right here.” A little bit put off by Hinata asking such direct questions to Yachi.

Yachi tries to answer diplomatically. “I can’t say that either of you are better than the other. I learned a lot from Nekoma members too so it was quite an experience. Everyone is very nice.”

Hinata hums as he eats. Kageyama then speaks up as he was curious about something, “Was there any point of difference between our teams from your observation?”

Yachi nodded. “There were several that I noticed.”

Kageyama nodded, telling Yachi to explain it in further detail.

She continued, “Well I can only say that Karasuno needs to improve our receives by a lot.”

Kageyama frowns as he picked on his vegetables, “Oikawa-san always reminded our team about that particular skill from our last game.”

“We’re not going to lose to them the next time!” Hinata declared as he suddenly eats his food in a much vigorous behavior. 

“You’re going to choke on your food if you don’t slow down, Shoyo.” Kenma reminded him.

Yachi chuckles a little as she continues to eat her dinner with the boys. Hinata kept prolonging the conversation between them with Yachi or Kenma adding to the talk. Kageyama kept quiet as he eats, save for some several comments from him to tell Hinata that he’s an idiot.

“When are you going to rotate to us again?” Kageyama asked to Yachi.

“I think the I’ll be rotating to you on the last day.”

Kageyama responded with a frown and a disappointed expression. He poked on his food, “I thought you’ll be rotating back to us as our regular manager soon enough.”

Yachi blinked, “Were you having troubles with the other managers?”

He shook his head, “No. It was just more comfortable when I’m with you.”

Yachi proceed to blink to process his words before she nodded, “O-oh.”

Kageyama then widened his eyes, realizing what he could meant and turned back to her with flushed cheeks. “I meant – it was more comfortable when we’re with you. The team. I meant it like that – yeah.” He cleared his throat several times before munching back his own food.

“If you say so…” Yachi replied hesitantly, “But the others managers are really good and you can learn a lot from them as well. Especially Fukurodani managers. Since they helped their team to nationals many times before.”

Kageyama nodded, “That’s true. Kaori-san taught us a lot of things today.”

As soon as Yachi finished with her food, she moved on to grab her a cup of pudding from her tray for her dessert when Kageyama suddenly puts his cup of pudding on her tray.

She looked up to him, “Eh? You’re not eating that?”

He shook his head as he grabbed his milk and punched the straw in. “Milk is enough for me. You can have it.”

Yachi beamed, happy to have another cup of sweet as her dessert. “Thank you, Kageyama-kun!”

“Hn.” Kageyama nodded as he sipped his milk. Yachi eats her first cup of pudding with relish before she finishes it off quickly and moving to eat another one. Kageyama watches as her cheeks filled with the food, resembling her face of a cute baby hamster.

He felt satisfied already when she eats her fill. She really looks like a cute hamster from his eyes. Unknown to Kageyama, his eyes were filled with fondness as he kept watching Yachi eat.

There was only one thing that irked him a little bit though. He honestly wished that she was wearing his jacket instead of the Fukurodani’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter updated! 
> 
> This chapter includes a gentleman Akaashi, a generous Kaori, a tired kenma, a worried Hinata and a weird Kageyama. 
> 
> That's all for this week. I don't know whether I can upload another one soon but hopefully it'll be around the same time next week as well. I'm going to take my time properly this time to write better chapters. I feel kind of bad that I dragged the plot like this haha but I guess I just want to indulge myself with Yachi fluffy moments because I just love Yachi. 
> 
> The thing is I'm having fun at the same time writing the chapters even though the plot turned out slow af lol but I need to learn properly this time about actual good writing haha. I want to practice all the things I learned from others. (watched a bunch of youtube videos on how to make a decent story lol) but I also don't want to overdo it cause in the end it'll overpressure me and I can't continue HAHAHA but hopefully it won't be like that. I just want to improve the quality of my writing a little bit hehe. 
> 
> Anyways! Finally Fukurodani next - I promise! And afterwards we're going to move back to the original timeline cause I don't want to drag on in this training camp further cause there's going to be another training camp before Karasuno entering inter-high haha. I need to edit my plans for the plot cause it's like really messy and I can't really figure out what I'm supposed to write next HAHA. 
> 
> Holy crap, I'm posting chapter 18. wow. can't believe I made it this far, it feels really strange and weird. never thought i'd have both energy and support for this but THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT, LOVE, AND CARE <3 I WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR WITHOUT YOUR TREMENDOUS REVIEWS AND COMMENTS AND EVERYTHING. THANK YOU THANK YOU - YOU ALL THE BESTTTTT!!!
> 
> ありがとうございますみんあさん！ほんとにありがとう！See you all next week in the new chapters!!


	19. Chapter 19

The next morning, she had to do some preparation for Fukurodani team. Yachi politely meet the coach and advisor from the Fukurodani school as they welcomed her warmly to the team then briefed on her what she needs to do for the day. Beforehand, Yachi also asked some questions to Kaori and Yukie on things she should look out for while managing the team.

Overall, Fukurodani works like other teams but they needed close attention to their personal needs as some members sometimes needed help with their sports gear or if they have any discomforts.

Yachi also carried Akaashi’s neatly folded jacket so that she can give it back to the setter again. She washed it quickly last night before she went to sleep and was thankful that the jacket dries quickly in the morning.

Yachi carried the filled water bottles towards Fukurodani’s court where she saw several of their members stretched their bodies while some were playing with their phones. As soon as she walks towards their side of the room, their eyes turned to look at her.

“Oh, are you the manager from Karasuno?” One of the members who were stretching their legs on the ground looked up and greeted Yachi.

Yachi instantly looked at him and greeted back, “Hello, my name is Yachi Hitoka. I will be your temporary manager for today.”

The boy nodded and began to stand up, to which Yachi realized that he’s taller than she thought when he towers over her with his height as he gave her a bright twinkling smile. “Yachi-chan, right? I’m Konoha Akinori, just call me Konoha. Bokuto told me a lot about you.”

“A-ah, is that so?” Yachi was a little bit taken back by the mention of Bokuto speaking of her - but she smiled back at him nonetheless. “I look forward to work with you today.” She gave a light bow.

He then patted her head gently, “Hey – don’t be too polite. We’re actually pretty chill here so just take it easy, okay? Oh, do you need any help in the preparation too?”

“I’m already finished with the preparation so you don’t need to worry. Is there anything else I can help, Konoha-san?”

The boy crinkled his nose, “Hmm calling me Konoha-san is a bit stiff so you can call me just Konoha or Akinori, I’m fine with either way, Yachi-chan.” He smiles and then surprised Yachi by suddenly poking her cheek, Konoha gasped as he was surprised by the softness of her skin. “Woah, Kaori was right, you are really soft!”

“K-Konoha-senpai.” Yachi was a little bit flustered by the gesture, it has only been a few minutes since they met but the older boy has already managed to play with her cheeks.

It was at this exact moment a hurricane flew to her and energetically greeted. “Yacchan! Good morning!” Said person was Bokuto was ever so smiling brightly, showcasing his energy right in the morning. “I’m so excited to have you on our team today! Ah! I want to touch your cheeks too!”

He then proceeds to squish her cheeks with the palms of his hands gently and gently pulled it with his fingers, “Hn! This is the best to do in the morning! _Puni~ Puni~”_

“B-Bokuto-san, if y-you could please – “ Yachi tries to speak through her squished cheeks but the owl captain melted into the softness of her cheeks.

Another Fukurodani member came by and slapped Bokuto’s hands away from Yachi’s cheeks. “Bokuto. Don’t torture our new manager, you’re going to make her cry.”

Bokuto pouted, “I’m not bullying her! Right, Yachi-chan?”

“Your words are contradictory. Hello Yachi-san, my name is Washio. If you have any problems about these guys, you can report to me if they’re doing anything funny to you.” Washio spoke in a polite tone.

Yachi gently rubbed her slightly red cheeks after being stretched and squished a few minutes ago. “Y-yes. Nice to meet you, Washio-san.”

At that moment, the coach yells towards the member to stretch since the practice will be starting soon. All of them instantly went to their own spots and stretched together in a circle and Yachi sighs at the previous encounter.

“It’s only been a few minutes and it’s already like this.” She muttered, remembering how Bokuto and Konoha had just squished her cheeks a few moments ago. 

Then she sees the figure of Akashi walking by and Yachi decided to go to him with his jacket. “Akaashi-san, good morning.”

The setter turned around and noticed Yachi. “Good morning, Yachi-san.”

She presented his neatly folded jacket. “Thank you for this. I already washed it so you can use it again. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

Akashi gave a small smile and reached to accept the jacket. “It’s no problem, Yachi-san. Thank you for washing it.”

“Hn! Please do your best today, I will be here if you need anything.” Yachi gave him a cheerful expression.

Akashi somehow felt his heart feels lighter at seeing the small manager giving her cheered for him with her sweet smile. “I’ll do my best.” Then he turned to join the rest of the Fukurodani members to stretch.

-

Yachi understands why the team always go to nationals every year. Fukurodani was on a level that greatly match that title of ‘Nationals Team’ because their skills as a team were incredible.

She had an incredible time seeing the team play. It was a little bit shameful to admit but Fukurodani was the strongest team she had seen in the training camp so far. She wondered whether Karasuno can catch up to them soon so that they can go to nationals as well.

Yachi kept refilling the water bottles and hand over the towels over the course of time. She also managed to sketch some members when she records their scores in their matches. She didn’t know that she was also having so much fun and joy in supporting the members of Fukurodani team. They were open and very easy to talk to, talking to them felt so natural to Yachi that she didn’t feel like she was a stranger in their team despite being a temporary manager for the day.

Among the time she spends supporting the team, she was greatly amused by Bokuto antics at trying to keep her attention every time he plays. When Fukurodani was playing against Ubugawa, Bokuto had so many successful cross spikes that it was so impressive seeing how the ball went in the court almost touching the lines on the ground.

‘As expected of an Ace. He’s very good.’ Yachi marks another successful cross spike from Bokuto in her notebook.

“Wohoo another point in! Yacchan, did you see that? Did you see the way the ball got in super quick?” Bokuto yells from his spot as he bounced on his feet, trying to catch her attention.

“I saw it Bokuto-san. You’re amazing!” Yachi replied in an awed tone.

“Hahaha I’m the best, hey hey hey!” He made a peace sign towards Yachi to which she could only laugh in return.

‘Bokuto-san is very energetic.’ She smiles brightly.

When the set ended, Ubugawa had to do their penalty round of drills while Yachi hands out the towels and water bottles to the members.

She gave one to the libero, “Komi-san, here you go.”

“Oh, thanks Yacchan!” He smiles as he takes the drink and gulps the water down.

Yachi smiled sheepishly by that nickname. It seems like the name got stuck to her since the rest of the members followed Bokuto’s way of calling her. Maybe it was easier to call her that way, either way she didn’t mind it that much because they seem to accept her easily as their manager for the day.

“Bokuto-san is playing very well today.” Yachi commented as she looks at the Ace with an amazed look. “I wonder how he doesn’t get tired when he keeps up that kind of energy all the time.”

With her comment, several members who heard Yachi’s words laughs. “Well, we’re actually lucky that he’s in his good moods today.” Komi replied.

Yachi perked up at this, “Moods?”

Konoha was the one who replied to her this time, “Ah – sometimes Bokuto gets in certain moods whenever an issue came up. We call it ‘Bokuto – emo mode’. He gets depressed instantly and don’t keep up his energy because he can’t follow the game’s flow.”

“His emo mode is so annoying, I tell you.” Komi nodded in agreement.

This was something that Yachi didn’t know about previously, she clicks her pencil and writes it down. “What kind of things that trigger Bokuto-san’s emo modes? Does he do it often in actual games?”

“He gets the emo modes once in a while when he can’t keep up with his play. There are too many to remember. I can’t keep count but Akaashi usually remembers and tracks them all and he’s the only one who can usually get Bokuto out of his emo modes.” Konoha explained.

Yachi lifted on her eyebrows, “There are a lot of triggers? Hm…are injuries or something alike is what makes him get into his emo modes?”

Komi cringed, “Not really. He gets his emo modes for absolutely stupid reasons.”

“Like when he can’t show off too much or when the crowd isn’t too big. Oh! When he can’t make out of the jump serves right. There are just so many that I lost count.” Konoha added.

Komi hummed, trying to think of the specific number as he placed his finger on his chin. “Perhaps there are about 50 triggers?”

“50?!” Yachi choked before she faltered. “Eh - I can’t imagine that much.”

Konoha gave an amused smile, “Tells you how much Bokuto-san is as a player. Well – I’m pretty sure that if he doesn’t have his emo modes, he’ll be ranked higher than his current position as the national’s best ace.”

“So his emo modes are sort of his drawbacks too, huh.” Yachi nodded in understanding.

“Hyping him up is usually the best way to get him out of his emo modes. Since he’s playing really good today, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing his emo modes soon.” Komi added as he sipped back his drink again.

Konoha snickered, “Or just kick his butt if he can’t get back to his normal self.”

Yachi writes this all down in her notebook.

_Bokuto Koutaro, Ace of Fukurodani. Even though he is powerful and very skilled, he also has a drawback called ‘Bokuto – Emo mode’. Reasons for this are many. The only way to get him out of this mode is to make him feel better._

Yachi draws a pouting Bokuto on the side of her notes. Seems like this was something that can be useful to her in the future.

-

When lunch time came, Yachi packs up all the drinks and towels on the side before she gets ready to help the kitchen staff. When Yachi packs the bottles up from the members, Akaashi came to her and asked for the scores for the day.

“Yachi-san, may I see the scores for today?”

Yachi was picking up a bottle when he came up to her, “Yes. Here you go.” She opens to a page where the scores were recorded.

Upon seeing the page filled with her notes and sketches of the team members, Akaashi stares at the sketches with mild interest. “Ah…I didn’t know that you are also drawing us, Yachi-san.” He commented.

“Well…I draw people sometimes when I’m very interested by their poses for an image. Oh – is it uncomfortable for you, Akaashi-san? I can throw the drawings of you away if you want to.” She replied, a little bit nervous since she didn’t exactly ask for people’s permission when she drew them.

She remembered Kenma’s expression the last time he saw her sketches of him. Even though he was okay with it, he was also surprised at first. Maybe this time, Akaashi didn’t like him being drawn without permission this time.

Akaashi kept quiet and surprised Yachi by flipping to her pages to look at the sketches more. A light sound came from his throat when he gets to where the sketches of him filled an entire page.

“Do you draw often?” He asked.

“I-I like to sketch things sometimes. Sometimes I draw people or animals out of curiosity and my hands just…starts to draw.” She replied, however her voice trails off a little due to her nervousness.

He was looking at her drawing so intensely. This feeling was familiar to last time Kenma was looking at her drawing.

“Beautiful.”

Yachi perked up at his voice. Akaashi lifted his face from the page and smiled in an amazed expression. He breathes in astonishment as his lips tugged wider into a charming smile.

“These are beautiful drawings, Yachi-san. You are very talented.”

“Th-thank you!” She replied. The warmth spreads all over her chest and stomach from the praise. Yachi was still getting used to the fact that people praises her for her drawings was making her both proud and shy at the same time.

“You also drew me for an entire page. That is quite a dedication.” He then chuckles, his voice lightly tickling her ears. “So you were staring at me closely during the games because of this.”

“Eh? R-right. I’m sorry if I seem like a creep.” Yachi stuttered through her reasoning.

After reading the scores and looking at her drawings, Akaashi closed the book with a content smile and gave it back.

With amusement in his eyes, he spoke. “I don’t mind having you watch over me closely again, Yachi-san.”

Akaashi laughs even louder when Yachi’s face bursts in blushing red and accepted her book with an embarrassed expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! It's been a while hehe. This time we're entering Yachi's day with the Fukurodani team yay. 
> 
> It was hard bridging the story from one to another but I did my best for this chapter. This time she learns about Bokuto's mode too haha. It's kind of funny writing about this part because I always remember to the stage play where Bokuto emo mode was really realistic hehe. And in this chapter, Akaashi also sees her drawings and uwoo Yachi got super nervous about it haha. 
> 
> See you in the next chapter!


	20. Chapter 20

It was after lunch time when Yachi feels the tiredness kicks in earlier than usual. She had just finished helping the kitchen staff in washing the dishes before she had to go back to the gym and prepare for the next session of practice for the rest of the day.

She isn’t that tired but she feels a little lethargic. Her usual energy for the day has somehow dried up and she wondered if her body had caught up to the hyped tension from the training camp this week. She really felt left behind from the other managers and athletes who still had so much energy even during the day.

Speaking of energy, right now Yachi was battling her might to carry all the filled water bottles into Fukurodani’s court in a basket but even so her arms felt sore and she felt the discomfort in carrying the basket from the kitchen all the way to the gym.

“…chan! Yacchan!”

Bokuto calls her with his sudden appearance, causing Yachi to yelp and fumbles with her basket from shock. Bokuto instantly reached out to keep the basket in place by placing his hands on top of hers on the sides of the basket without having it fall to the ground.

“What’s wrong, Yacchan? Your heads still up in the clouds?” Bokuto asks in concern as he stares down at the girl.

“B-Bokuto-san…” She greeted him sheepishly, smiling at him despite feeling tired. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were calling for me.”

She feels a little strange as his large hands were placed over her small ones on the sides of the basket where they momentarily held on to each other. For some reason, Yachi felt a little bewildered at such bold gesture from Fukurodani’s ace but it seemed like he doesn’t have other intention with this action, keeping in place so that the basket doesn’t fall.

Bokuto blinks his eyes for a few times before his face zoomed in to lean to Yachi’s face and Yachi immediately leaned back in surprise from his action. “B-Bokuto-san?”

Bokuto hummed before he leaned back and tilted his head, “Yacchan, you look a little paler than usual. Are you feeling unwell?”

He then proceeds to place his palm on her forehead and Yachi slightly flushed at the gesture before she shook her head a little, “Oh - I’m not sick, Bokuto-san.”

“But you look a little pale. Wait, I’ll carry this one for you. Maybe you shouldn’t push yourself too hard today, Yacchan.” Bokuto then took the basket out of her hands.

“Eh – but Bokuto-san, I can carry those by myself.” She tries to reason with him but the owl captain merely laughs brightly and easily reach out to pat Yachi’s head.

“It’s fine, Yacchan! Let me help you a bit.” He says as he smiled brightly at her before his eyes turns into a softer look, “But I’m serious when I say you shouldn’t push yourself too much, Yacchan. As captain, I want to make sure that you’re okay.”

Yachi decided to let him be and nodded obediently, “Okay, Bokuto-san. Thank you for looking out for me.”

Bokuto lifted his chin up in pride and harrumphed, “I’m such a great captain after all! Haha!”

Yachi couldn’t help the giggle passing from her lips as she tried to hide her laughter behind her hand. What a bold and confident person, Yachi is greatly amused.

“Besides I know how hard it is to take care of our team. Kaori and Yukippe also worked really hard when they support our team as managers, that is why the members must always look for each other.” Bokuto began explaining as they walk their way towards the gym.

Yachi tilts her head and smiles warmly, “You all must really care for each other. It’s wonderful.”

Bokuto smirked wider, “Of course! Our team is the best after all, gyahaha! But – “ He looked back to Yachi in a serious tone as continued, “This does not exclude you, Yacchan. So you don’t have to feel indebted or guilty when we choose to help you out at times.”

Yachi blinked at his words, a little surprised by his statement. “Eh?”

Bokuto continued with an eased tone, “I’m just saying – I had a feeling that you were that type of person. I heard you just became a manager recently, right?”

“R-right.” Yachi replied, unsure of where this was going.

Bokuto gave a loose smile, “Once you are in a sports team – comradeship is usually very close between members so we always look out for each other without having second thoughts. It’s why we call each other by first names so that we can feel closer as teammates.”

Yachi slowly nodded, suddenly understanding why the members of Fukurodani team calls her by the nickname despite them only knowing for a few hours of the day. Since she isn’t in a sports team before, she didn’t exactly know the culture within sports team altogether but this was something that she learns very recently.

She feels like she understands what Bokuto meant. “I see…”

Bokuto shrugged his shoulders, “It’s not that different but I’d like to imagine that we’re all sort of like a family. That’s why we always look out and help each other so easily. Hmm…how do I say it? It’s like a second nature to us that we should help each other and be helped in return – something like that?”

‘So he’s telling me that I shouldn’t think too much when someone tries to help because it’s considered normal for them to help each other out even if it’s not within their duties to do so.’ Yachi thought over the conclusion to Bokuto’s words.

“I…I understand them now, Bokuto-san. Thank you for your insight…honestly I’m not really used to such things like this. Being in a team has brought me thinking for so many things. I always learn something new every time.” Yachi spoke.

Bokuto chuckles and ruffles her hair, the gesture warms Yachi’s heart again. “It’ll take some time for you to adapt to fully into the team but I hope that you can learn a little bit with us during the training camps we have.”

“Hn! I’ll make sure to do my best too!” Yachi gave him her brightest smile in return.

“Yosh! That’s the spirit!” Bokuto returns her bright smile with his own.

-

When the next practice match was starting soon, Yachi helps to prepare the court by mopping some spots where the floor was a little bit slippery. As soon as she was done with mopping, she saw Kuroo standing over to the side of the court while he around as if he was looking for something.

“Kuroo-san, is there something you’re looking for?” Yachi came over with her mop and asked the Nekoma captain.

The boy turned around and brightened when he sees Yachi’s face. “Yacchan! I was just looking for my phone. I remembered putting them here somewhere on the last practice match before lunch time.”

Yachi then also helped to look at where his phone could be before she decided to just make this issue resolved faster. “Do you think it’ll be quicker if you call your phone, Kuroo-san?”

Kuroo perked up at this as he stared at Yachi. “Then, do you mind letting me borrow your phone for a bit?”

Yachi took out her phone from her pocket and hands it over to Kuroo to where he smiles in thanks as he typed his phone number in her phone and calls his phone. It didn’t take too long before they could hear a ringing tone of a phone somewhere near them from the floor where it sounded like the phone’s sound was muffled by some things.

Kuroo and Yachi tries to look and see where the sound was coming from. Upon seeing the piles of sports vests on a corner, Yachi immediately went towards it and pushed the pile of sports vests to the side where she finally sees a buzzing smartphone underneath the pile.

“I found it!” She exclaimed as she took the buzzing phone from her number and then hand it over to Kuroo.

“Oh, thanks a lot, Yacchan!” He says happily as he returned her phone and took his from her hand. As he took the phone in his hand, he then added, “Since you have my number in your phone, make sure to save mine properly, Karasuno-chan.”

“A-ah.” Yachi just realized that she now has Kuroo’s phone number in her phone. “O-okay, Kuroo-san.”

Kuroo smiles wider and then motioned to her as he shows his phone screen where he also added her phone number in his. Somehow with this gesture, Yachi felt a little shy at seeing him adding her phone number so easily because of this.

“Hey, I want to have Yacchan’s phone number too!” Bokuto came to their spot and pouted when he overheard Kuroo talking about saving his number in her phone. Bokuto quickly whipped out his phone and walk towards Yachi. “Yacchan, let’s exchange numbers too!”

“Eh? S-sure, Bokuto-san?” She was a little bit surprised by this but seeing that the owl captain was so excited to exchange phone numbers with her, Yachi allows him to type his phone number in her phone and have her type her number in his phone.

When Yachi received her phone back, she sees the display name that Bokuto saved in her phone.

_Ace of Fukurodani, Bokuto Koutaro_

‘He sure wears his title proudly.’ She smiled.

“See, I can also be friends with Yacchan.” Bokuto teased Kuroo who was glaring with daggers towards Bokuto, showing off Yachi’s number in his phone.

“You really don’t do subtle, do you?” Despite Kuroo’s sharp smile, his eyes were filled with vicious glare.

Bokuto raised his eyebrows and laughed, patting Kuroo’s shoulder. “Friendship is all about good timing, Kuroo.”

“Yeah. _Good timing._ ” Kuroo scoffed and rolled his eyes, shaking Bokuto’s hand from his shoulder. He then turned his face towards Yachi, “I’m sorry for whatever you’re going to have to go through for the rest of the day with this loud owl.”

“Eh? I – I um….” Yachi was unsure on how to respond to that but Bokuto easily cuts off and wrapped his arm around Yachi’s shoulder easily and pulled her towards his side. Yachi was surprised by this action, again as Bokuto seemed to be comfortable being close to her somehow, and watched as the Fukurodani captain spoke.

“Yacchan will do just fine in our team. I’ll make sure that she’ll have better experience in spending time with our team than yours.”

Then he swiftly turned around with Yachi and walked towards their side of the court, “Let’s prepare for the next match, Yacchan! We’re going to go against Shinzen next.”

“Y-yes, Bokuto-san.” Yachi piped back and walked with him. She briefly glanced back to Kuroo and gave him a small smile before she follows Bokuto towards their team.

Kuroo watched with a scowl as the owl captain dragged the starry blonde manager away. He really didn’t like the way Bokuto gets too comfortable with the petite manager so easily.

“Looks like that owl knows a trick or two.” He grumbled out before he turned away to his own team, feeling a little bit bitter after Bokuto’s closeness to Yachi earlier.

He tries to think on the positive things to cool down the bitter fire in his chest. At least he had Yachi’s number in his phone now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> So remember when Bokuto gave a really good advice to Tsukki during training camp? I think that scene really changed my perspective of Bokuto as a character. Despite his energetic and loud personality, he's actually pretty good at what he's doing and he doesn't give bad advices to other people who needed to hear the words from him. And because of that, I brought that aspect in this chapter as well - I feel like he's such a comforting character who goes out to make sure Yachi has Fukurodani's team on her back as well so basically he's telling her that Fukurodani is looking out for her too. Kuroo finally had Yachi's number wahahaha so that gotta means something in the future hehe :3 and also Bokuto doesn't want to feel left out here haha. 
> 
> So that's all for this week. I can't really upload chapter 21 yet because I don't feel like it's good enough to be posted yet so I'm taking my time in writing that one properly. So 2 chapters for this week, sorryyy. To be honest, this week feels so long and super busy and I just realized that since it's already December, work has been getting super duper hectic lately with all the evaluations and stuff so I think I might have to put this story on hold for a bit. 
> 
> So I'm announcing here that I'll be on a hiatus for around two weeks (or more - idk lol). I need to take some time to manage things properly with work and my studies too so yeah - I'm going to a long hiatus :( I really don't want to take hiatus because I really want to keep writing until the new years but gahh I have so many things to do huhuuuu :'((((
> 
> I hope you all can understand my situation but I would like to apologize beforehand if my hiatus is too long or something like that. I won't abandon this story because I have so many things planned for this story haha. 
> 
> That's all for now. Thank you all for reading until this far! See you all in the next chapter! Please take care and be careful out there :D


	21. Chapter 21

For the last game of the day, Fukurodani eventually had to face their final match with Nekoma according to the practice schedule. Yachi followed Konoha and Washio towards the court where the team will be facing with Nekoma.

Yachi suddenly yelped when she felt a pair of hands covering her eyes out of nowhere.

“Guess who?”

The voice spoke and Yachi was a little surprised at the calm toned voice. She recognized the voice but isn’t sure if she was right since this person weren’t likely to pull pranks like this to her.

So she had no idea whose hands these belong to.

“U-um…I’m not sure who is covering my eyes but why did you answer, Kozume-san?” She spoke up.

When the hands eventually lifted from her eyes, she turned around to see a bewildered Kuroo and Kenma standing before her.

“Eh, I’m surprised that you knew that it wasn’t Kenma’s hands. What gave it away?” Kuroo asked curiously.

Yachi was a little shy to explain it so manages with a simple, “Intuition...” 

“Or maybe your hands smell really gross.” Kenma added easily while he walked away.

Kuroo gasped with a hurt expression, “Wh-what? That sounds really wrong. My hands don’t smell at all, right Yacchan?”

“It’s nothing like that.” She replied politely.

“You don’t have to lie, Yachi-san.” Yaku said casually as he passes by Kuroo’s back and this comment left Kuroo scowling at the libero.

Yachi chuckled lightly. Before joining Fukurodani’s team on the other side of the court, Kuroo suddenly said, “Can you cheer for me in this match, Yacchan?”

“Eh?” Yachi was a little bit confused.

The edge of his lips stretched upwards and he tilted his head, “I feel like I can do a hundred times better if you cheer for me and the team.”

“Um…I –“ As Yachi was trying to explain that she was felt awkward if she had cheered on for Nekoma’s team when she is on the other side of the court with Fukurodani.

Suddenly, another voice instantly cuts in and this newcomer placed their arm around her shoulders. “Why are you trying to steal our manager again? Let’s go Yacchan.” Konoha said before he was able to take Yachi away from Kuroo.

Yachi wasn’t able to say a proper reply to Kuroo but since she was being dragged towards Fukurodani’s team, she could only give an apologetic expression and mouthed towards Kuroo, _“Good luck, Kuroo-san.”_

Once Yachi joins Fukurodani, Konoha gently patted Yachi’s head and smiled. “Don’t worry too much about that sneaky captain, Yacchan. You’re with us for the rest of the day.”

“Y-yes, Konoha-senpai.” She replied.

Sarukui perked up when he sees Yachi, “Eh? Did Yachi gets stolen away again?”

“It can’t be helped that Yacchan is small.” Komi added with a light laughter, “Let’s do our best for this match, Yacchan!” He pumped his fist up.

Yachi nodded, “U-un!”

As the Fukurodani members were called to gather around by their coach, Yachi stands on the sidelines and watches as the Fukurodani’s advisor and coach gave some pointers before the start of the match against Nekoma.

As Yachi listens to them attentively, she recognizes how deep their rivalry is against the Nekoma team.

To be seriously taking each other as rivals and respect them at the same time, it’s admirable how sportsmanship can exceed such noble values. The words from Bokuto’s conversation from earlier echoes in her mind.

_“Once you are in a sports team – comradeship is usually very close between members so we always look out for each other without having second thoughts.”_

Yachi trails her eyes over the other side of the court and her eyes landed on her own team, where Karasuno were currently getting ready for their match against Ubugawa team. She sees the way their energy vibrates around their area and how energized they were to look forward their next match.

Yachi smiles when she sees Hinata and Kageyama seem to bicker with each other again as they were hitting each other shoulders by slapping with the volleyballs they were currently holding, only to have Ennoshita to scold them easily and they stopped, embarrassed that they were being lectured again.

Near them, she sees Tsukishima rolling his eyes and Yamaguchi snickering behind his mouth when they see their first year teammates gets scolded again.

Yamaguchi, as if he was able to tell that someone was looking at him, shifted his eyes and stared back to Yachi who was looking at them attentively.

Yachi blinked for bit before she placed on a wider smile and waved at him. Yamaguchi smiles shyly before waving back at her and mouthed, _“Do your best, Yachi!”_

_“You too, Yamaguchi-kun. Do your best!”_ She mouthed back.

Yamaguchi’s cheeks were slightly painted with a light blush as he feels a little giddy at the way Yachi smiles brightly at him. Even though she was on the other side of the court with another team, her smile from the distance didn’t fail to make his heart flutter.

Tsukishima, who caught Yamaguchi waving and smiling loosely, smirked when he sees his childhood friend’s expression. “You make it look so obvious, Yamaguchi.”

Yamaguchi stops his movement and jumps when Tsukishima commented, looking back to the taller blond in panic as he stammered, “Wh-what are you talking about, Tsukki?”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and moved away, not giving away any of his thoughts to this comment anymore. Yamaguchi panics even further and followed Tsukki while asking what he meant by his previous statement.

-

So far the match between Fukurodani and Nekoma was going pretty well. Yachi made sure that she keeps the members hydrated and gave them the towels they needed. Some members needed extra help with wrapping since their fingers were getting bruises from the play and Yachi diligently helped them out.

Well as if things could go super easily during training camps.

It has been nearing the end of the first set when Nekoma turns the tide against Fukurodani with Lev and Kuroo rotating to the front and kept Bokuto’s spikes getting blocked.

And to Yachi’s surprise, Bokuto suddenly pouts in the middle of the game and became agitated when his spikes couldn’t get through the blockers. She felt the tension of the Fukurodani team went rigid with restlessness when Bokuto started to grumble and pouts in miserable tone.

At some point, Akaashi then called the captain out. “Bokuto-san, you need to calm down.”

“I am calm! I can get the next time, I swear!” Bokuto shouts with a childish pout and this time it made the entire team sighs with tiredness when Bokuto’s true colors about his feelings finally came out.

“Ah, here it comes again.” Komi commented with annoyance as Konoha merely frowned at the sight.

Yachi was a little bit flustered at what happened but then she remembered the conversation she had with the Fukurodani members previously.

‘Was this…his emo-mode?’ Yachi wondered.

“One more time!” Bokuto yells for another spike as Akaashi smoothly carried out the ball to Bokuto’s way.

As soon as Bokuto jumps to hit the ball, the long arms of Nekoma’s blockers stretched out quickly and blocked Fukurdonai’s ace again in a swift motion.

The Nekoma cheers for their earned points and the referee signals for the end of the first set which was won by Nekoma. The Nekoma members cheered together for their win for this set and Yachi sees Kuroo smirked towards Bokuto’s way as if he was challenging him.

Bokuto seethed with frustration and puffed his cheeks.

‘Somehow he acts more childish than I thought in his emo mode.’ Yachi thinks as she sees the Fukurodani members gathered around Bokuto and called him out.

“Bokuto, you should stop being pouty like a kid. We’ll get the next set.” Komi patted Bokuto’s back.

“No!” Bokuto cried, gritting his teeth, “My spikes…keeps getting blocked….I’m so annoyed!”

“Bokuto-san, calm down –“ Akaashi tried to reason with him but the captain instead huffed and walked away from them, walking to the other side of the court for the court switch in second set.

Yachi and the rest of the Fukurodani team sighs. It seems that this could be a troublesome outcome if Bokuto keeps being in his incomprehensible mode for the next set.

“I-is there anything we can do to help him, Akaashi-san?”

Akaashi turns his head towards Yachi, “The team usually let him calm down on his own but that kind of hinders our flow of the game so it’s better if we can try to make him get back of his good mood again.”

“So what do you usually do when Bokuto-san is like that?” Yachi asks curiously.

Akaashi lightly smiles, “Various ways. Sometimes we get him to hype up by turning silly logic or attention to him. Our managers usually like to hype him up by telling him that the crowd or a pretty girl is giving him attention.”

Yachi couldn’t help but laughed lightly at the ridiculous reasoning.

Akaashi smiles widened at the sound of Yachi’s light laughter. ‘Cute.’ The comment echoes in his mind when he sees Yachi’s smiling expression.

“Silly, right?” Akaashi asked.

Yachi only smiles lightly in return, “I can understand from your point. But it does somehow make me understand more about Bokuto-san’s personality. It’s amazing how a person could be so interesting.”

She had always thought Bokuto was the epitome of an ace. Big, loud, confident and powerful. But just like Karasuno’s ace, despite their overwhelming appearance and power – they also have some sides to them that are quite humane. Having flaws are part of being an extraordinary person after all.

Somehow that revelation comforts her a little bit.

When the rest of the Fukurodani members reached the other side of the court, Yachi watches as the members kept hitting Bokuto’s back and trying to hype him up. On the other hand, Bokuto merely grumbled and followed to Akaashi’s advice in trying to calm himself so that he doesn't feel irked again by the constant blocks of spikes.

It was actually sort of amazing, even without Bokuto bringing the scores in the game – Fukurodani seemed to be able to hold on to their momentum and steadily get their points back in return.

Yachi notes all of this down in her book again, the more she spends her time more with the other team, the more she learns about how volleyball is so much bigger than she had thought.

There were strategies and tactics that she has never seen before, the attacks and defense that even Karasuno team haven’t been doing and the mindset to how the players, coaches and advisors took turns in trying to win out the best out of the game was also different.

In swift minutes, the Fukurodani team were able to win back the second set. The team cheered on their hard work and patted on Bokuto again, reassuring him that they were able to handle to game properly.

“It’s your time to turn this thing around, Ace!” Konoha hit Bokuto’s back exaggeratedly, making the owl captain staggered in his footing.

“R-right…right.” Bokuto replied absentmindedly before he walked dazedly to the other court to switch. It seemed like Bokuto isn’t back in his good mood yet.

The rest of the team members sighed again when they watched Bokuto in dejected expression.

“If he keeps being like that then we’ll be the ones handling it for the rest of the day even after practice hours.” Washio stated. Sarukui and Konoha groaned and held their heads.

“Ugh I don’t want to take care of that big baby after practice hours!” Konoha wailed.

“There is nothing else we can do. It’s not like we’re going to play the game badly when he’s like that.” Komi added.

“Wait ‘till he starts being whiny during dinner time.” Konoha gritted in response before Komi shuddered.

“Yeah, that won’t be peaceful at all.” Komi replied.

Yachi watches the whole thing with a worried expression. Even though the Fukurodani team seems like they’re used to it, Yachi somehow doesn’t feel comfortable seeing the bright owl captain to turn all sour and down like that. It feels sort of…pitiful and she just feels saddened that such a bright person like can switch off his mood so quickly.

It’s like seeing Hinata getting sad and Yachi remembers the sorrowful feeling when her sunshine friend turns out feeling miserable like that.

Yachi was unsure on how she could help him but…she’ll be willing to try. So she walks towards the owl captain with a bottle in her hand and poked his shoulder a few times, gaining his attention.

Bokuto turned around and saw Yachi’s face and blinked. “Oh, Yacchan.”

It could be her imagination but did his hair seemed like it withered down because of his mood?

“Here you go, Bokuto-san.” She hands him out the cool water bottle and watched him drank the bottle. “How are you feeling, Bokuto-san?”

Bokuto sighed when he separated his lips from the bottle and frowned, “Upset. My spikes keep getting blocked and I feel really frustrated. Everything is going down.”

“So you are unhappy? I’m so sorry to hear that, Bokuto-san.”

“Hn….I’m sorry I look super uncool right now.”

“It’s okay, Bokuto-san. I’m actually kind of surprised that I get to see this side of you.”

Bokuto tilts his head, “Hn?”

Yachi smiles, “I always forget that even the strongest and most confident people I know are also human. I’m also impressed by how the team are so good in taking care of each other and support the team even when their ace is feeling down.”

“Yeah…my team is really cool.” Bokuto added, with a light chuckle.

“But Bokuto-san, you are also cool.” Yachi stated, her hands lightly played the edge of her shirt, feeling a little embarrassed somehow. “Even though you may seem like you can be feeling down sometimes, you are also extremely powerful when it comes to your spikes. I also learned recently that volleyball isn’t just about the scores and tactics.”

Yachi smiles shyly and lightly shifted her gaze back to Fukurodani’s team. She learned something big from spending time with this team. Something that she’ll be able to remember for a last time.

“It’s the people that also makes volleyball a worthy sport. You have amazing teammates who are confident in your abilities and your lead. Supporting each other’s backs… so it’s already like a second nature for them. So when you’re feeling down like this…I’m very sure that you can be the great ace in the end no matter what because...because…”

“Because…” Bokuto trails off, curious to hear what she is about to say.

“When it comes to the word Ace, I think I can only imagine you from now on.”

Bokuto Koutaro is the epitome of the word Ace. From his physique and his skills, his aura gave the confidence of an ace. Despite his boisterous personality and his difficult moods at times, Yachi knew that the core of being the strongest ace was still there in his heart.

Bokuto is not just proud of himself but also the people supporting him. That is why the team is so good with each other. With the way they trust each other and carry each other’s backs, even when it seems like their ace could be missing from scoring points, they weren’t shaken by the loss at all.

Because they knew that Bokuto was still there with them.

It’s almost poetic for Yachi who learns of this by spending time with Fukurodani. Perhaps this is why they always go to the nationals every year. It’s not just skills needed to carry the team to the national’s stage but also their mindset and their comradeship.

“So I hope you can feel better soon, Bokuto-san.” Yachi lastly said and gave him a fist pump to hype him again.

Bokuto stared at Yachi, his eyes gazed into her bright brown eyes closely. He already knew that the timid little manager from Karasuno was new to volleyball but who knew she would be catching up so quickly.

From her shy smiles, her flushed cheeks, her bright eyes and her sweet voice. Bokuto finds his insides melting when he’s near her. Just everything about Yachi screams cute.

This time, her encouragement also proved to be effective. Bokuto learns that Yachi may be timid and shy, but even with her small figure she’s also learning to spread her wings with confidence and kindness.

“To use my own words to help me…you’re quite bold, Yachi.” Bokuto lightly chuckle at himself as he looked down.

“Bokuto-san?” Yachi was surprised by the slight change in his demeanor.

Bokuto lifts up his face proudly and smiled brightly before laughing away. “Hahaha! You’re absolutely right, Yacchan!”

“Bokuto-san, eh – Bokuto-san?!” Yachi squealed when suddenly she finds herself being lifted up from the ground and swayed in the air by Bokuto’s hands on her hips as he lifted her up easily with his own strength.

“I am Fukurodani’s greatest Ace, hey hey hey!” He declared loudly while twirling Yachi in the air as the smaller girl squealed in fright with the ground being so far away from her feet.

“B-Bokuto-san, p-put me down.” Yachi tries to call him out but her voice weakens when Bokuto keeps carrying her up.

“Bokuto-san, you’re making her sick by twirling her like that in the air.” The hero comes to rescue the day, Akaashi came by and scolded Bokuto to stop his silly antics.

Seeing Yachi’s eyes dazed and unfocused, Bokuto stops twirling in the air and gently lowered her down to the ground. “Oops, sorry, Yacchan.” Bokuto apologizes but not really letting her go yet.

Before letting Yachi off from his arms, he leaned down to Yachi and gently rubs his face to her hair. “Yacchan~” He coos at her, as if he had been healed by the embrace.

Yachi couldn’t find her voice to speak out since her head was still spinning. With Bokuto sudden closeness to her, she could only feel overwhelmed and flustered. Her cheeks flushed red at the contact and her eyes widened at the close proximity.

Akaashi bit his lower lip and finally reached out to Yachi to free her away from Bokuto’s locking arms around her. “That’s enough, Bokuto-san. I’m glad you’re feeling better but please refrain from squeezing our temporary manager to death.”

“Mou~ I’m not squeezing her to death. Yacchan’s soft and small, so she fits perfectly in my arms.” Bokuto pouted in return.

Akaashi narrowed his eyes at the captain with that reasoning. “You should refrain from saying things like that when you’re near the Karasuno team, Bokuto-san. Or else Sawamura-san is going to be mad.”

“Yes, yes~” Bokuto ignored Akaashi’s advice and patted Yachi’s head before he slipped away, “Yosh! Let’s win this set!”

“Yeah!” The rest of the Fukurodani team cheered up again when their captain returned in his good mood.

“It felt like I just went through a thunderstorm.” Yachi muttered as she tries to keep her head intact without feeling the dizziness in her head again.

“Are you alright, Yachi-san?” Akaashi asked.

Yachi nodded, giving him a tired smile. “I’m okay. I’m glad that he feels better.”

Akaashi smiles in return and then patted her head, “Thank you, Yachi-san.” He then gently brushed a hair lock away from her face and bring it back behind her ear.

Yachi’s heart flutters a little at the gesture as Akaashi’s lips tugged further at Yachi’s slight shiver by his fingers touching her intimately before he lets her go and walked towards his team.

Yachi huffs to herself, her face flushed from the previous actions the members of Fukurodani did to her and bit her bottom lip. “Goodness.” She sighed before she joins the sidelines to support the team until the end of the practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the absence, I hope you all can forgive me with today's update. 
> 
> I actually struggled a lot with this and the upcoming chapter since it's another bridge between one team to another and I'm trying to make sure everything is natural and smooth. Hopefully it can turn out well. Bokuto's emo mode is here and Yachi tries her best to help hehe. 
> 
> I also want to say that I might change my updates a bit after the new year. I guess it'll be up to how I can write this story because starting in January I think I'll be super busy with work so I'll update as much as I can. I won't abandon this story but I'm not sure if I can keep up in uploading three chapters every week. But I'll try to manage my time and upload at least once a week. 
> 
> It's been rough lately even though the year is closing. Someone close to me got covid so our family had to do test right away, thankfully we were all tested negative but we still have to be isolated in our homes. I might not be super active but I'll try my best! It's kind of hard to stay happy and in good thoughts during this pandemic when it hits close to your home. I just hope we can make it through and stay healthy for 2021. 
> 
> Please be safe and make sure to wash your hands and cover your face with a mask every time you go out. I'm sure you all know this by now but please be extra careful as always! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading, I'll see you in the next chapter!


	22. Chapter 22

Towards the end of the third day practice, Yachi helps out the team and staff by cleaning up the gym, washing the bottles and do the laundry since she was on duty. She was collecting the used towels from every team before she managed to go to the laundry room and washed the towels before hanging them outside.

The sun was already setting and by this time, the kitchen staff is already on duty. Yachi slightly sighs to herself that the third day was finishing. Just two more days before they were going back to Miyagi.

‘It felt like two weeks already…maybe it’s because I’m not used to it.’ Yachi thought before she took the wet towel from the laundry basket and hang them up on the laundry line outside of the laundry room near the kitchen.

On the other side of the area, Eri was already done with hanging up the vests so she peeked her head to Yachi and called, “Yachi-chan, I’m heading in first to help the girls at the kitchen.”

“Un. I’ll finish up the rest over here, thank you for today, Eri-san.” She replied back and waved to the older manager who left the laundry-hanging area.

“Yosh, let’s finish this up, Hitoka.” Yachi mutters to herself as she continues to hangs up the rest of the towels.

As Yachi was hanging the towel, a sunlight shone through her eyes which made Yachi blinks in discomfort before rubbing her eyes.

“Yachi-san!”

A voice called out, startling her as she jumps at the newcomer. When she sees the familiar black haired boy in her blurry vision, she greeted him.

“Kageyama-kun?”

Kageyama suddenly leans in closer to looked to her face, even with the short distance, Yachi was surprised by his sudden action.

“Are you okay, Yachi-san? Why are you crying?” He asked, his voice wavered in concern.

Yachi’s eyes widened, “Crying? I’m not crying, Kageyama-kun.”

Kageyama narrowed his eyes, “You weren’t crying?”

Yachi shook her head, watching Kageyama’s stiff shoulders relaxed and leaned back. “I thought you were crying…I saw a glimpse of you through the towels and saw you rubbing your eyes…”

Yachi chuckles lightly, “And you thought I was crying? It’s okay, Kageyama-kun. I’m fine.”

“Oh…okay…” He took a few steps back and looked at the towels in the basket. He began to reach out and took out a towel to hang it up, “Let me help you.”

As Yachi was about to say that she was okay and she didn’t need any help, the previous conversation with Bokuto rang in her mind again.

_“So you don’t have to feel indebted or guilty when we choose to help you out at times.”_

So instead of declining his offer, Yachi smiles and thanked him instead. “Thank you, Kageyama-kun.”

“Hn.” He grunted before silently hanging up the rest of the towels.

The atmosphere had become peaceful, with the winds gently blowing, the sun was setting far off in the sky, coloring the world in warm colors of orange. Yachi took this moment to look up to the colored sky with relaxed mind as she inhaled the fresh air inside her lungs.

What a beautiful evening.

With the last towel to hang up, Yachi waited for Kageyama to hang up his last towel. When Kageyama was done with the last towel, he walks between the hanging towels and found Yachi in the midst of the hanging towels when she was staring at the orange sky with bright eyes.

Like a picture from a movie scene, Kageyama couldn’t help but stop his tracks and stare at the sight in front of him.

Somehow, Yachi seems to glow under the sunset light and her entire figure appeared to be so soft and lovely. Her blonde hair with the cute little star pins on her head, her soft expression, her _smallness_ that seemed to agitate Kageyama’s insides to reach out to her and hold her in his arms –

Kageyama shook his head. ‘What the hell.’ He seemed to be surprised by his own flow of thoughts inside his mind when he thinks of Yachi.

“Are you done, Kageyama-kun?”

Yachi broke Kageyama out of his thoughts as he looked back to her and stiffly nodded. Yachi smiles and reached down to grab her basket and carried it to her hip.

“Dinner must be ready by now, let’s go and eat.” She said as she begins to walk away from the laundry area.

Somehow, by some nonsense of no-logic-but-gut-feeling, Kageyama hastily reached out to Yachi’s wrist and stops her from going further.

Yachi turned her head around and stared back at Kageyama in shock. She looks at his hand around her wrist before she looks back to his face again.

“Kageyama-kun?”

Kageyama then let go of her wrist quickly. “A-ah, sorry.” _I wasn't thinking properly._

“What’s wrong?” She asked again, feeling a little bit concerned at Kageyama’s conflicted expression.

“Nothing…sorry for grabbing you suddenly like that.” Kageyama apologizes.

‘Why did I do that?’ Kageyama seemed to be confused by his own action as well.

Instead of questioning on his strange behavior, Yachi took this chance to pull him back to reality.

“Let’s go to the cafeteria now. You must be feeling hungry after practicing endlessly today.”

“Hn.” Kageyama grunted in reply before following Yachi towards the cafeteria.

No words exchange between them anymore but Kageyama’s head was filled with millions of questions to why he was behaving so weirdly when it comes to Yachi.

He did feel it for a brief moment, the peaceful visage he sees earlier of Yachi basking in the sunset light in the midst of the hanging towels, like a memory of a dream inside his mind which seems to bring him genuine comfort.

His hand reach out to his chest where his heart was beating so loudly against his chest from moments ago. He shifts his eyes to Yachi from his vision and wondered why his heart beats strangely every time he stands near her.

-

“Man, I’m starving. What a long day we had.” Hinata stated as he sat down with his tray, facing Yachi and Kageyama as he was joined by Yamaguchi and Tsukishima on his side.

“I’m so tired, I can’t even think anything but food right now.” Yamaguchi agreed before he places his hands together and chanted ‘ _Itadakimasu’_ before digging to his rice.

Yachi watched with an equally tired and amused smile towards her friends. She does agree how long today’s hours felt. She had been so busy with the Fukurodani team and also the other managers who were asking for additional help, her day was full of so many things.

But it was a fulfilling day because she gets to learn and experienced a lot of things from the other team. She had two remaining days until they were finally finished with the first week of training in Tokyo with the other schools, then they were going back to Miyagi.

“Yacchan, how’s your day? I haven’t seen you properly ever since breakfast today. Was it interesting being with Fukurodani? You get to see their Ace closely!” Hinata asks enthusiastically as he was munching on his rice.

Yachi pondered for a moment before she replied, “Hm…all I can say is that it’s not a surprise that they get to go to the nationals every year. Every member was very good in each matches.”

Kageyama added, “Were they different to Nekoma in terms of defense?”

Yachi tilted her head, “They are good at connecting the ball but it was more like their offense were pretty good. They did not hesitate to spike every balls they can counter.”

Yamaguchi piped in with awe, “They are really confident, as expected of the team that goes to nationals every year.”

“We’re not going to lose to them! Ah – you should share us the details later about Nekoma and Fukurodani team play, Yachi-san.” Hinata perked up with the suggestion.

Yachi nodded, “I do have some notes from their plays in my book. I’ll gladly share with you all later.”

“Yes, thank you so much, Yachi-san! It’s so nice to have such reliable manager like you in our team.” Hinata replied with ease as he went back to his dinner.

Yachi merely smiles shyly as she continues to eat her food. Kageyama stares at Yachi from her side and kept on munching on his food.

As their dinner continued, Hinata kept updating on what the team was doing during the day while Yamaguchi added several information about what Yachi missed out. On the other hand, Kageyama and Tsukishima remained quite as if they chose to eat dinner without talking much.

Afterwards, the time went on peacefully until they were finished. And right before they all retire back to their dorms, Tsukishima lightly spoke to Yachi before they separated their ways.

“Don’t tire yourself, Yachi-san.” He spoke easily before he slipped by her and went on his way towards his dorm.

Yachi could only gave a small smile after his retreating form.

-

The next day, Yachi was rotated to Nekoma for the second time and since she knew the members a little bit better than last time, practice started very smoothly from morning hours. However, just like the strangeness in her own team, Nekoma weren’t so different with their eccentricities as well.

“Kenma, put that thing down – we’re going to practice so start stretching.” Kuroo nagged at the pudding-haired boy who only gave a scowl in return as he kept on playing the game in his phone.

“Just five more minutes, we’re not starting that early anyway so why the hurry.” Kenma responded bitterly as he kept his eyes on his screen.

Yachi was done with filling the water bottles when she came back to Nekoma to find this scene. Kuroo sighed, palming his face with his hand.

She then spotted Lev who was running around with a tank top and greeted Yachi brightly, “Yacchan, I grew taller by a millimeter!”

Yachi blinked her eyes owlishly in surprised before she managed to reply, “Woah…Lev-san, you’re still growing?”

Lev pouted at Yachi’s less enthusiastic response, “Of course I’m still growing, Yacchan~”

Kuroo turned sharply towards Lev and spoke, “Lev, keep walking like that then you’ll be hearing more yelling from the coach. Wear your shirt properly.”

“O-osu captain.” Lev replied nervously before he turned away and wore his gym shirt.

“Did you see that, Yacchan? This is what I had to go through as captain. The children won’t listen to me properly.” He spoke with such tired tone that somehow it made Yachi chuckle instead. The fact that he called his teammates children somehow reminded him of Daichi who also had the same expression towards Karasuno’s members.

She guessed that captains do share similar experiences with their teammates not listening to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This time we have Yachi rotated back to Nekoma team again. 
> 
> I'm not sure about this chapter haha so I just made sure that the bridging of the plot is good enough, I hope it didn't come out too awkward to read. Thank you for reading the story until this far! Alas, this is all I will be posting for this year. Next time I update it'll be after the new years. 
> 
> What a year! I graduated this year, got my first job and also posted this silly story. I'm glad that many people enjoyed reading Yachi Effect! I'm very grateful for all the comments, critics, and suggestions left by all of you. English may not be my first language but I'm very happy that my thoughts and message can come across to everyone properly. 
> 
> Once again, thank you everyone for all the wonderful comments and reviews! I'm so grateful! Please be careful and stay safe as always! I'll see you all next year!


	23. Chapter 23

Practice with Nekoma seemed to go smoothly. They were able to score points and lose some. The blocking moves that they made was so very impressive each time Yachi sees Lev and Kuroo grouped together and had their hands reach out to block the spikes towards their way.

Yachi smiles as another spiked ball got blocked by Kuroo’s arms as a point scored for Nekoma. On the other hand, Karasuno were groaning with disappointment as they loss another set which means that they had to do another penalty.

Yachi cheered for her team members when they started to do another drills around the gym. Sugawara smiled when he noticed Yachi’s cheers and the rest of the third years waved back at her when she mouthed towards them _‘Do your best!’_ – which seemed to become an effective boost because they were energetically diving to the floors for their penalties.

Kiyoko chuckles lightly when she reached towards the younger first year manager. “You did great, Yachi-chan. It seemed that you are able to manage Nekoma team impressively.”

The compliment from the older girl made Yachi flushes red. It was one thing to be complimented by someone she knows but it was another thing to be complimented by someone she really respected. She felt happy when her senpai praises her.

“Th-thank you, Shimizu-senpai! I’ll keep doing my best!” She chirped happily, earning a light laughter from the older girl as Kiyoko reaches out to gently squeeze Yachi’s cheek.

“Of course you will. I’m glad that you’re enjoying during this time as well. It looks like I was worried for nothing.”

“O-oh no, Shimizu-senpai. If it weren’t for your help, I wouldn’t have gotten this far.” Yachi replied surely, her eyes brightening with persuasion.

This time, the older manager laughed. Her voice beautifully sings in the air that made the entire atmosphere brightened and warm, Yachi couldn’t help but was in awe of Kiyoko’s beauty. ‘As expected as someone who is very beautiful! Even her laughter is melodious!’ Yachi thought in her mind.

Kiyoko patted Yachi’s head warmly, “You’re too sweet, Yachi-chan.” 

Yachi lightly chuckles, feeling extremely happy by the praise she received from her senpai.

-

Practice went smoothly and Yachi was grateful for all the members’ cooperation with her. She managed to help several members who needed medical assistance and she was able to make sure that everyone performed greatly that day. As soon as it ended, Yachi wasted no time and helped to clean up the gym before she had to go to the kitchen since tonight was her duty to be preparing dinner with Kaori-san.

When she passes by the doors, she was suddenly greeted by a grumbling Hinata and bumped into her when he tries to walk in the gym.

“Ack!” Hinata yelped when he bumped into Yachi head on. Seeing Yachi wavering from her feet as if she was about to fall, Hinata quickly grabs her arms in place. “Sorry, Yachi-san!”

“H-Hinata.” Yachi greeted, a little bit surprised by the sudden bump earlier.

“Sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going, are you okay?” Hinata asked, checking Yachi all over to make sure she was alright.

Yachi gave him a smile, “I’m okay.” She replied when she noticed the rough expression in his eyes, “What’s wrong, Hinata?”

Hinata’s eyes widened at her question and quickly shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong, I promise! Um – I’m going to practice a little bit more, see ya!”

“Eh? O-okay…” Yachi replied softly as she watches Hinata quickly dashes inside the gym and went to Nekoma’s side where he greeted Lev and Kenma. It seemed like he wanted to practice more with them even when the official training hours has officially ended.

‘He’s really working hard.’ Yachi thought before she went out of the gym’s way and walked towards the kitchen area.

Along the way, she sees a figure of Kageyama hitting a vending machine as he grumbled under his breath. He doesn’t seem to be in particular good mood like Hinata earlier.

“Kageyama-kun, what’s wrong?” Yachi greeted as she walked towards him.

Kageyama instantly stops his grumbling and turned towards Yachi, his furrowed eyebrows slightly lose its tension and greeted her. “Oh, Yachi-san.”

The vending machine made another humming sound as if it was on a malfunctioning mode and Yachi looked towards where a box of milk was suddenly caught between the vending machine’s glass. Yachi could guess that he was struggling to get his drink out.

“I’ll help.” She gets some coins out of her pocket and inserted it into the vending machine, pressing on to the same button of drink that the milk box was currently stuck at.

Kageyama blinked at her actions and spoke out, “It’s alright, Yachi-san. You don’t have to buy a drink to push mine – “

Too late, since Yachi already pressed the button – both Kageyama’s and Yachi’s milk box came out from the stack and properly dropped. Yachi crouches to get both of the milk boxes and handed one to Kageyama.

“Still cool and fresh, here you go, Kageyama-kun.” Yachi handed him his milk box.

Kageyama accepted it, relatively with ease and watches as Yachi props the straw into her own box and sips on it. She hums, “Hm, it’s fresh milk alright. You sure drink healthy stuff every day, Kageyama-kun.”

“It’s not every day…” Kageyama replied with a light flush on his face, a little bit embarrassed that his favorite drink from the school’s vending machine was predictable to Yachi.

“I usually drink banana milk since it’s sweeter but drinking fresh milk isn’t so bad.” Yachi says with a light smile as she continues to sip her drink, “Are you done with practice, Kageyama-kun?”

He shook his head, gripping on his milk box a little tighter. “No…I’m going to practice with – I mean by myself now.”

“Okay. Don’t practice for too long or else you’ll miss dinner. I’ll see you then, Kageyama-kun. Do your best!” Yachi bid farewell as she waved to Kageyama before leaving the area.

Kageyama nodded and watches Yachi walks out of his vision before she disappears when she turns in a corner from a far. He sighed, lightly biting on to his milk straw and sighed again. Then he turns his feet around towards another opened gym to practice his sets on his own.

-

Yachi was able to eat dinner earlier so she didn’t eat with the rest of her friends during the time dinner hour occurred. She helped with cleaning up the dishes and plates before Yukie calls for her help.

“There are still some people practicing at this hour, could you help me to remind them that the cafeteria is closing soon?” Yukie requested.

Seeing that the time was getting late, Yachi hurried to the gym and called for the rest of the players who were still practicing at this time of hour. Perhaps because they were in the mood for practice, they didn’t really recognize the time that dinner was going to end soon.

She sees several team members from Shinzen still practicing their service aces. Yachi gently took off her shoes and called out to the members who were still practicing in the gym.

“Hello! Cafeteria is closing soon, so please clean up and make sure to eat dinner before the cafeteria closes!”

Yachi was glad that her voice was loud enough for the entire gym to stop and paid attention to her. Upon hearing that the cafeteria was closing soon, the members started to clean up the place and stop their practice.

Yachi chuckles lightly when she sees two Shinzen members escaped their cleaning duties and head straight to the cafeteria, ignoring the yelling from their captain.

“I’ll help.” Yachi volunteered as she started picking up the stray balls.

“Oh, Karasuno-chan! Thank you so much!” Shinzen’s captain thanked her as he picked up the mop. “Do you mind collecting the vests too?”

“Yes, senpai.” Yachi replied back and proceed to help clean up the place with the rest of the members who were currently inside the gym. 

As Yachi was collecting the vests that were piled on the floor, someone came and gave their vest to her. “Here you go – um, sorry I haven’t caught your name.”

Yachi turned around and gave a polite smile, “Ah – my name is Yachi Hitoka. I’m a first year from Karasuno.” She introduced herself. Noticing his height and figure, Yachi’s mind echoes again in her head. ‘Here comes another tall person. He’s even taller than Tsukishima-kun.’

“Cool. My name is Chigaya Eikichi. I’m a first year from Shinzen. Nice to meet you, Yachi-san.” He spoke with a friendly smile. “I’ve only met the other manager from Karasuno.”

“That must be Shimizu-senpai.”

Chigaya’s cheeks tinted with a shy pink, “Shimizu-senpai. She’s very nice. We didn’t have a manager this year so having a manager for this training camp helped us a lot in practice.”

Yachi hummed, “Is it difficult to train without a manager around?”

Chigaya’s curly hair seemed to bounce every time he moves his head, perhaps it was just Yachi’s imagination since he was super tall and every head movement looked intriguing to her.

Chigaya brought his hand to his chin in a thinking pose, “Personally it is difficult to train without a manager. I mean we can take care of ourselves but it’ll be too much on our hands.” Then his eyes brightened up, “Shimizu-san showed us how convenient it was to have someone like her around in our team. She’s an incredible manager.”

Yachi smiled brighter, feeling the pride of being the underclassman of Kiyoko blooms in her chest. “I agree. Shimizu-san is so reliable.” Yachi hugged the pile of vests tighter in her arms with a determined glaze in her eyes. “I’ll do my best like Shimizu-senpai too.”

Chigaya laughs, “It seems like you’re doing a great job already, Yachi-san. I heard nothing but praises from my friends about you. It’s too bad you didn’t rotate to our team in the schedule.”

“Maybe next time.” Yachi smiles sheepishly.

Chigaya nods then slowly tilts his head as he stares at Yachi’s face, contemplating about something. With this gesture, Yachi was a bit confused.

“Is something wrong?” She asked.

Chigaya’s head went back to its original position and spoke, “Nothing it’s just…I just realized you kind of look like that idol that got famous recently.”

“I – Idol?” Yachi repeated numbly. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Chigaya nodded, “Hn. See, that expression. You really look like her - woah.” He then started to whip out his phone from his pocket and searched for the idol’s picture he mentioned, showing it off to Yachi from his screen.

Yachi looks over to it, reading the name of the idol and the group she came from. “Riri-chan from Dream Girls Idol group – oh, I’ve heard of them before but I don’t really remember the members.”

Yachi closely inspects to his screen again. Yachi isn’t sure whether this cute looking idol with blonde hair resembled Yachi. The only thing that was similar between them was the fact that they wore star accented accessories and the apple hair style the girls of their age usually wear.

“I don’t see how I look like her. Our features don’t look the same.” Yachi commented before she leaned back and faced Chigaya.

Chigaya grinned, “It’s the aura. Riri-chan is known to have that shy and cute idol-like aura with the fans.”

“Oh. Hm…we’d probably be similar in that aspect as well.” Yachi added.

Chigaya placed his phone back in his pocket. “I think it’s kind of cool. Riri-chan is quite well known in Tokyo. I won’t be surprised if people mistook you for Riri-chan in the streets, Yachi-san.”

Yachi felt a little nervous at the thought of being recognized just because she shares similar appearance to an idol. “I hope not.” She wishes.

Chigaya snickered, “Let’s just hope you don’t get bombarded with her fans mistaking you for her.”

As Yachi clears out the area, she and Chigaya walks out of the area while carrying the vests in her arms. At this moment, she sees someone walking nearby and Yachi smiles when she recognizes him.

“Yamaguchi-kun.”

Yamaguchi looked up from the ground and his eyes brightened when he sees Yachi. “Yachi, ah – hello.” He then greeted Chigaya as well as the other boy returned the greeting.

“Did you eat dinner, Yamaguchi?”

Yamaguchi gave a sheepish smile, “Not yet. I’m heading to the cafeteria right now.”

“Oh – then you should head there quickly. The cafeteria is closing soon. Chigaya-san is also going there too right now.” Yachi spoke.

The taller boy added, “I’m starving.”

Yamaguchi chuckled lightly at the Shinzen first year before the turned to Yachi. “What about you, Yachi?”

“I’m heading to the laundry room to drop the vest so you both can go ahead first.” Yachi replied, shifting the vests in her arms more comfortably.

Yamaguchi cocks his head to the side and offered, “The laundry room is near the cafeteria, right? I’ll help you carry those.”

“Hn? Oh – it’s okay. Thank you.” Yachi spoke as Yamaguchi reached his arm out and took half of the vests from Yachi’s arms and carried it easily in his.

The three of them then started to walk to the cafeteria. They talked about the recent volleyball practices and the rotating schedule with the managers. As expected, Chigaya and the rest of the Shinzen team were very impressed by Kiyoko’s managerial responsibilities and how quick she was to adapt and help the team to boost their improvement.

“Our previous manager graduated before I even entered high school so the manager position in our team is currently unavailable. Hmm, maybe captain would let us give the opportunity to someone for this position.” Chigaya wondered.

Yamaguchi replied, “I think it would be best if you have a manager in your team. I was actually surprised that Shinzen and Nekoma didn’t have any managers. You know, because you are all super elite team of Tokyo.”

Chigaya laughed at Yamaguchi’s statement. “Super elite team of Tokyo is a bit too much.”

“But you go to nationals every year. Doesn’t super elite team of Tokyo sound fitting?” Yachi added.

This time Chigaya chuckles with a light shade of blush on his cheeks, “Now you’re just teasing me. But I would reason that it’s natural for our team to go to nationals every year since we’re good.”

“How cool.” Yamaguchi smiles awe before shifting his expression into determination. “Karasuno also won’t lose.”

“Of course! I’d like to face off against your team in nationals soon!”

Yachi smiles at this warm conversation. Even though their walk was short, the talk with Chigaya was very fun. The two Karasuno students bid farewell to Chigaya as they head straight to the laundry room to drop the vests.

“He’s nice. It’s cool to know people like that.” Yamaguchi piped up after they went to the laundry room.

Yachi nodded, “Gets you motivated, right?”

“Hn. I’ve always loved receiving motivations from other people and lately – “ Yamaguchi stares at his palm and smiled wider, “I also feel like I’m getting stronger too.”

“You are getting stronger, Yamaguchi.” Yachi spoke with an earnest smile.

Yamaguchi blinked his eyes momentarily before he looked back to Yachi. “Really?”

Yachi laughs lightly, her light voice seemed to tickle his ears again. “Of course! I’ve seen how hard you worked with your floaters. You are getting better at it. I’ve always watched you.”

After hearing such words from Yachi, Yamaguchi couldn’t help but bit his lips as he tries to contain the giddiness inside his chest.

‘How come Yachi say those things without realizing how cute she looks – I’m going to melt at any moment soon because of this.’

“Hehe – I, uh – “ Yamaguchi clears his throat before he sounds like a fool, “Thank you, Yachi. For always watching…over me.”

Yachi giggles and send a twinkling smile. “Of course!”

As Yachi keeps walking ahead towards the cafeteria, Yamaguchi slowed down his steps momentarily and clutched his chest with his hand as he sucked his breath, his expression scrunched as if he bit a sour lemon.

“Guh…she’s too…cute!” He muttered through gritted teeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you for reading this chapter!
> 
> I apologize if this chapter seems kind of dodgy and out of place haha - I was planning to make some bridging chapters so that the flow of the plot can be comfortable in the future. I hope you don't mind with one updated chapter for now. Writing this chapter was difficult somehow since I don't really plan the details on bridging between the plots so this chapter came out meh :/ but I really hope the Yamaguchi and Yachi scene came out okay. 
> 
> I'm very sorry that I could not update earlier. I've been super duper busy with life lately especially with work since I have additional tasks right now so I did not have the opportunity to write this fic often :(((((( Also my sister recently got married and the pre-wedding ceremony and the wedding ceremony was so hectic that I could not even think of this fic during those times haha. So I can't make any promises now to update weekly since I have to prioritize my work first buuuuuut I will try my best to update as soon as I write the chapters. 
> 
> Like I said previously, I won't abandon this story but I can't promise quick updates like before. I just hope you all don't get mad at me for this decision :( 
> 
> Thank you for reading this story until this far! Stay safe everyone!


	24. Chapter 24

It was the last day of practice and she can finally rotate back as Karasuno’s official manager with Kiyoko. Even though Yachi couldn’t sleep properly the night before due to her sore muscles, she was able to get up early and help up with the preparation for that day.

In the morning she ate a light breakfast before she joins the rest of her members in the gym. Upon entering the gym and walking towards Karasuno team, Nishinoya sees her face and brightly greeted her.

“Oh – Yacchan is back!” He greeted her loudly.

Yachi was caught off guard by the enthusiastic greeting. Even though she knew the members of her team are always energetic, she was still surprised how much energy Nishinoya had at this time of hour.

“Good morning, Nishinoya-san.”

“Oh Yachi-san, you’re back!” This time Tanaka came and greeted the blonde haired manager with a touched expression. “It felt like 100 years passed by when you’re not with us.”

“I get what you mean, Ryuu! I feel incomplete when Shimizu-san and Yacchan weren’t with us these past few days.”

“Like a year without rain!” Tanaka piped loudly in return.

“Alright you two – stop being so loud in the morning.” Sugawara came to the rescue and stopped the two dramatic second years before it gets any worse. He then turned to Yachi and greeted her with a fresh smile, “Morning, Yachi-chan! Good to see you with us again.”

“Sugawara-senpai, good morning!” She greeted him back cheerfully as she watched the vice-captain smiled back.

“Since its our last day here, let’s do our best!”

“Yes, sir!” Yachi saluted to Sugawara’s words. The boys laughed at her enthusiasm and then they began to talk about their recent progress with the other managers from the previous days. 

Yachi was happy to learn that the other managers were very capable and that they helped the team tremendously despite being new to the rotation system.

“Kaori-san and Yukie-san from Fukurodani were very helpful when they were with us. Maybe because their team went to nationals often, it was very eye-opening.” Sugawara spoke.

“To think there were many ways to get stronger, how manly!” Nishinoya pumped up his chest as if he had manifested this recent idea he received.

“That sounds just like what you’d say, Noya-san!” Tanaka cackled in agreement.

“Amazing. I’m glad that we were able to learn so many great things from the other teams.” Yachi added.

“Yachi-san, could you come over here for a minute?” Yachi turns around to see Coach Ukai calling for her when Kiyoko waves at her. Yachi nodded and head straight to the man and greeted him.

“Good morning, Coach!”

Coach Ukai chuckles lightly at her bright greeting. Seems like she was getting used to the energetic aura of Karasuno team already.

“Good morning. I’d like to go over some things before we start our practice today. I want to know whether there are some things that you’d like to point out after you spend your time with the other teams. Anything we can learn from, that’d be extremely great if you girls share it with me and the team.”

Kiyoko and Yachi took out their notes and go over what they wrote down from the previous days. Yachi didn’t write much on her findings besides some details she noticed from several members – fortunately, Kiyoko made extremely detailed notes from her part which was very helpful for their data gathering.

By the end, with Yachi’s and Kiyoko’s data, Ukai was very grateful for both of the managers’ analysis from the other teams and offered strategies to how Karasuno can improve their skills from now on.

“We still have a lot of holes to fill but this is more than enough. You both did an amazing job.” Ukai complimented.

Yachi was very happy when she heard that from the coach. Even though she wasn’t able to gather much, her notes were still helpful. She looked to Kiyoko in giddiness as the older girl lightly chuckled at the younger girl’s reaction.

From then on, the practice will be starting soon, so Yachi helps Kiyoko around with some additional preparations. As Yachi was bringing in the filled water bottles to the team, she spotted some second years looking a little lost on their side.

Yachi hurried towards them and asked, “Hello everyone. Is everything alright?”

Ennoshita was the one who turned to see her first and greeted back, “Yachi-san. Ah – we are looking for our knee-pads, it seems like we’ve misplaced it somehow.”

“I remembered putting them here a few minutes ago.” Kinoshita replied, rubbing his light brown hair and looked a little bit disgruntled.

“I think someone took it by mistake? Our knee-pads are pretty common to other knee-pads.” Narita spoke.

“I’ll help look for them.” Yachi announced and started to look around the area as well.

“O-oh, thank you Yachi-san.” The second years replied as they continued to look for the kneepads as well.

As Yachi moves a little further away from the spot where Kinoshita pointed earlier, she spotted a pile of stacked towels and spotted a black pad underneath it. Yachi reached to move the stacked towels and found several knee-pads scattered on the spot.

“Found it!” Yachi took the knee-pads from the ground and hurried back to the second years to give it back to them.

“Oh so that’s where it was! Why didn’t I remember it?” Kinoshita received the knee-pads and give the rest to his friends.

“Next time you should remember where you keep it, Kinoshita.” Narita reminded which made the other boy smiles sheepishly in defeat.

“Thank you, Yachi-san.” Ennoshita thanked her.

Yachi nodded, “Un! Please make sure to keep your knee-pads with you, a lot of people from the other team loses theirs because they misplaced theirs constantly too. So it’s better to just keep it in your pocket if you don’t use it.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that. Thank you very much, Yachi-san.” Kinoshita replied.

Afterwards, their coach called them all to come over and told them to start stretching. Yachi walks towards Kiyoko where she’ll be getting ready for their practice when she spotted the first years as she passes by.

“Good morning, Yachi-san! It’s good to see you here with us!” Hinata greeted her happily.

“Good morning, Hinata! I’m happy to be back again. Please do your best today.”

“That goes without saying haha!” He replied before joining the others for the stretch.

Yachi also caught Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and Kageyama walking pass by her.

“Morning, Yachi-san.”, “Good morning, Yachi-san.” Both Yamaguchi and Kageyama greeted her with their own tone.

Tsukishima merely nodded at her and continued to walk by. Yachi greeted them back with her own smile and watched as the boys joined the rest for the stretch.

After the team was done with stretching, Daichi gathered the boys around and coach started with their practice officially.

“Our first game is with Nekoma. How did we do yesterday?” Coach begins.

Kiyoko flips her notebook open, “This will be our third set overall with Nekoma. Yesterday we played two sets with them. The scores were 17-25 and 19-25, both our losses.”

“Simply put, we haven’t won a single set.” Coach concluded with a defeated smile to this statement and looked over to Nekoma, “But if we calm down and go out there in full force, they should be opponents we can fight on equal footing.”

He looked back to Hinata and Kageyama, “Hinata and Kageyama, this is your first Nekoma set in a while, isn’t it? Even though we had less chance to practice with them during this training camp, go show ‘em what you’ve got.”

“Yes!” Both boys replied loudly.

The referee rings for the match to start and all of the boys took their place in position. Yachi and Kiyoko joins Ukai and Takeda-sensei on the chairs as they watch the match starts. Kiyoko took the chance to write down the scores this time as Yachi keeps watch.

As soon as the game started, Yachi knows that Nekoma still easily took the lead for the game. It is not surprising anymore that the members of Nekoma can easily catch up to Karasuno quick sets especially the fast quick that was done by Hinata and Kageyama.

From Nekoma’s side, she sees Lev quickly reads the ball to where it’s going once it was set by Kageyama. He moved quickly to block the spike that was hit by Hinata, watching it drop back to Karasuno’s court.

“Read block was it? Lev-kun is sure improving very quick.” Yachi noted and Kiyoko turned to her from this comment.

“I heard that Haiba-san is a newcomer to volleyball but he’s pretty quick in catching up.” Kiyoko spoke.

Yachi hummed, “I think he’s best at blocking since he’s tall and quick but his receives might need to improve more.”

At Yachi’s words, the girls watched as Lev flailed when he wasn’t able to receive the ball properly and flinched when Yaku nagged at him for the bad move.

Kiyoko chuckles lightly at the scene as Karasuno made another point. “You’re right.”

However, despite Lev’s lack of experience in volleyball – he’s quick to prove that he’s able to catch up quick to offensive attacks like fast quicks by Hinata and Kageyama as Lev blocked another spike from the freak duo.

“H-he stopped it. He stopped that quick attack so easily.” Takeda-sensei spoke in amazement when he saw Lev’s blocking again.

“Well, Nekoma has been pretty good in reacting to quick attacks. On top of that, the newbie middle blocker’s height and quick reaction are amazing.”

After several points for Nekoma, Ukai called for a time out and briefed on the team again for how they can counter Nekoma’s quick blocking and strong defense. Yachi took this time to go around the team and give out the drinks.

Upon giving a bottled drink to Kageyama, she noticed he seemed a bit tight with the expression on his face.

“Kageyama-kun, here’s your water.”

Kageyama snapped out of his thoughts when Yachi showed the bottle towards his way. He blinked for several times before taking it from her hand and drank it.

“Thank you.” He replied absent-mindedly, as if his mind was on somewhere else.

“Un.” Yachi noted, a little worried that Kageyama was such in a deep expression that doesn’t seem to look fine to her. Even though she wanted to help, she couldn’t really give helpful advices like coach Ukai so she merely moved on to the third years and gave their drinks.

The match continued again and this time it seems like there was slight a cold and stinging tension in the air now.

‘Everyone seems…pressured than usual somehow.’ She observed.

It all shifts into something more jarring when the ball that was set for Asahi was stolen away when Hinata suddenly jumps to his direction to spike his ball, with an expression of rawness of thirst after the ball on his face.

Yachi eyes widened because it was so quick and before she could realize what was happening, Hinata had crashed into Asahi as he fell roughly to the floor.

There was a stiff silence for a few seconds before everyone started responding to what happened.

“Wh-hwa-hh-haa – “ Asahi was making incomprehensive words as he loomed over Hinata in worry when Hinata broke out of his trance and sat up and apologized repeatedly.

“I’m sorry!” He then began to bow on the ground, “I was just staring at the ball – I’m sorry! Are you okay? I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Asahi reaches out gently, “I’m perfectly fine…”

“Hey, what the hell was that, you guys better be careful.” Tanaka added with a surprised expression.

Nishinoya added with a smirk, “With that kind of clash, Shoyo’s going to be the one flying.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings, idiot! Why do you think everyone’s calling the ball, you dumbass!” Ukai yelled in frustration and nagged on Hinata.

Meanwhile Kageyama added the fire by loudly yelling at him too. “Moron! Hinata, you Moron!”

“Now, now – calm down, Kageyama.” Daichi entered to calm the frustrated setter and try to cool the situation down a little bit.

Yachi watched the whole thing with concerned eyes. She didn’t realize she just stood up from her seat and slowly sits down again after seeing the captain putting everyone back in position.

“They’re not injured.” Kiyoko reassured her.

“R-right.” Yachi replied.

She was unsure but she knew she didn’t imagine it. When Hinata jumped towards Asahi’s direction, she saw that raw expression when Hinata gets really deeply into volleyball.

_“Do you need a reason to not want to lose?”_

‘Was this perhaps…like that moment as well?’ Yachi’s mind ponders back to the past where Hinata expressed his raw thought and emotion on winning in volleyball.

‘He really wants to be stronger and win, no matter what it takes. It’s not an ill thought but…it’s kind of scary.’

Then Hinata surprised Yachi more when she overhears their conversation. Hinata boldly declared that he’s going to do the quick attacks with his eyes open.

‘I couldn’t understand the whole thing from their conversation but…’ Yachi then turns to Kiyoko for confirmation.

“I wasn’t imagining the tension between Hinata and Kageyama, right?”

The older girl responded, “Yes. But it’s not just Hinata and Kageyama. Ever since Hinata bumped into Azumane, they’re all on edge.”

Yachi noticed it too. The way their air from Karasuno shifted into something sharp. There was an unspoken revelation to the team from what happened to Hinata from earlier.

He was hungry and tired of being in the same state as he was. He’s hungry for improvement.

But that kind of thought can be good and bad for the team. It’ll certainly change the flow of the game drastically. With everyone not equipped with their skills and experience, all of the new tries can be considered risky.

But would that be a bad thing? Yachi sees that Kageyama resented the suggestion the most when Hinata wishes to open his eyes for their fast quicks in order to see his view clearly when he spikes in the air.

It is extremely risky but Yachi knew that Hinata was also right. Though they don’t seem to know how to do it right since they’ve always been doing fast quicks with his eyes closed.

Yachi took this time to reflect on the loss of the set from the match and wrote all of it down in her notes. She can’t help but feel conflicted along with this new revelation of Hinata wanting to become stronger yet –

‘Would becoming stronger means sacrificing what you’ve been good at?’

-

According to their schedule, the last day of the training week ended earlier than the previous days. Karasuno could only have their practice match against Nekoma team for the day and then followed by cooling down stretches.

Yachi couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable ever since the practice match against Nekoma ended. It seems like the tension between Hinata and Kageyama didn’t cool down so she tries her best not to touch upon the topic between the two and help out with Kiyoko in wrapping up for the day.

She collected all the bottles, the towels and return the vests. When Yachi was collecting the balls to the cart, she sees a newcomer placing the balls inside the cart she was pushing.

“You seem a little off today, Yachi-san.”

Yachi looked up, “O-oh, I’m fine, Akaashi-san. It’s been a long week.” She tries to put up a smile, hoping that she didn’t look too tired.

“I can imagine. This is your first training camp with a team. How was it?”

“Ah – um…everything is….very new.” Yachi replied, the only thing that could come up to her mind right now.

Akaashi lightly laughs, picking up another ball to put in the cart again. “I guess you can say it like that. The first week is always rough, it was the same for me too last year.”

“You seem like you’re able to keep things under control though, Akaashi-san.”

“Do I?” Akaashi raised his eyebrow before he smiles when he replied, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m actually not that organized as a person. Even though I look like I may be able to control things within my boundaries, it’s not often I get to do that successfully especially in the team.”

“I think you’re doing great so far. I mean, you are the vice-captain so it’s pretty reassuring to have you in the team.”

Akaashi’s smiles widened as he picked up another ball, “Thank you. That’s comforting to hear.”

Yachi replied in her own smile, “Well, you obviously deserve it, Akaashi-san. You’re one of the most dependable person I’ve met in this training camp so far.”

As Yachi fills the cart with the balls she picked up from the ground, Akaashi couldn’t help but smile wider at her words. Though she might say it easily, her words voiced out purely honest from her heart that it was extremely comforting to hear.

“Sorry – coming through!” Someone announced and made their way to put the large amount of balls that was carried in their arms, dropped it to the cart.

“Thank you, Bokuto-san. You’ve managed to pick so many at once.” Yachi said.

“That’s because I’ve got big strong arms right here. See.” Cue Bokuto flexing his arm muscle towards Yachi, making the girl laugh at Fukurodani’s ace antics.

Akaashi shakes his head with his own chuckle, “That is so like you, Bokuto-san.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter! I'm not really happy with this chapter but it's out here so might as well post it. Since Yachi is back to Karasuno, everything can go either good or bad from now on - hahahaha. I think some of you might know what happens next is the very thing that I don't really want to write about because...yeah but I gotta do it lol. 
> 
> I'm honestly unsure of how I can make the story line more...I don't - like - make more sense or something like that. I'm not really happy that my chapters and writing came out choppy and unpolished because I'm pushing myself to put out a chapter instead of trying to make the best of the chapters I'm writing. So I'm going to take my time for the next chapters and post it once I'm okay with it because I don't want my chapters to came out choppy and unpleasant to read. 
> 
> Not so much fluff or sugary sweet scenes for this chapter since I'm trying to mellow out and fold the plot for the climaxes hahaha so hopefully it can come out natural and smooth - pfft i don't know what i'm doing hahahaha
> 
> Once again, thank you all for reading! It'll take a while for me to post the next one but I'll see you all in the next chapter!


	25. Chapter 25

After Yachi pushes the volleyball cart away, Bokuto slings his arm around Yachi’s shoulder and expressed, “Hn, it’ll be awhile before we meet again for the next training camp, Yacchan.”

Yachi lightly gave a defeated smile as the Fukurodani’s ace placed his arm comfortably on Yachi’s shoulder. Bokuto chuckles at her response and lightly poke on her cheek, “Are you going to miss me, Yacchan?”

“It’s just two weeks, Bokuto-san.” Akaashi added.

Bokuto pouts and pokes on Yachi’s cheek again. “Where else can I touch a soft cheek like hers…look Akaashi – _puni~puni~_.” Bokuto proceeds to squish Yachi’s cheek with his fingers, stretching it lightly before poking at it again. Yachi felt defeated at this moment.

“Ahem!” A loud cough caught all of their attention and Yachi looks upon her savior.

“Captain!” Yachi’s eyes brightened at Daichi walking over her.

“I hope you’re not planning to bully our manager, Bokuto-san.” Daichi spoke, eyeing the arm that was placed on Yachi’s shoulders.

“What? Of course not!” Bokuto huffed.

Akaashi sighs before he managed to push Bokuto’s arm away from Yachi’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Sawamura-san. Our ace can be a bit dramatic.”

“Right.” Daichi was grateful that there was at least another sensible and responsible person like Akaashi to watch over Yachi when she’s away from his field of vision.

Yachi hops over to Daichi’s side and stood behind him. Daichi smiles, satisfied that Yachi came over his side quickly.

“Well then. I’d like to say thank you to your team. You helped us a lot during this week from the practice matches. I’d like to send my gratitude to your managers as well, they’ve been incredibly helpful to Karasuno in the past few days.” Daichi spoke, facing the captain and vice-captain of Fukurodani team directly.

“Likewise, Sawamura-san. We look forward to your plays next time.” Akaashi returned the pleasantries before he turned to Yachi and nodded at her, “Thank you, Yachi-san, for helping our team in the past few days as well.”

“It was really fun when you came to our team, Yacchan! Feel free to ask us any time you need help!” Bokuto added.

“It was a pleasure working with you.” Yachi returned with her own polite bow.

“You sure have a lot of reliable members in your team, Sawamura-san. Even though this might be your first training with our group, we hope we can have more opportunities like this in the future.”

“We’ll do our best to keep that promise.” Daichi smiled.

Bokuto lightly laughs and patted Daichi’s shoulder a few times. “I look forward to it!”

-

Yachi did her last round of checking all over the areas to see whether her team had left something behind. So far she had found some that belonged to her members so she made sure gather them and bring them all to the bus so nothing left should be left behind.

As she was making her last minute checking in the gyms, she spotted a wristband that belonged to Hinata and quickly picked it up. When she turns around to leave the gym, she accidentally bumped into someone who was walking towards her way.

“S-sorry!” She apologizes and sees the familiar pudding head was taking a step behind from their momentary clash.

“It’s okay, Yachi-san. Are you okay?” Kenma asked.

“I’m okay.” Yachi replied, noticing that he was holding a familiar looking shoe bag that belonged to Hinata. “Ah – is that Hinata’s?”

Kenma blinked and looked to the shoe bag he was holding. “Oh so this belonged to Hinata-kun. I found this from the other side of the court, I guess you can take it since you’re his manager.”

“Thank you so much, Kozume-san.” She was relieved that Kenma found it because it’ll be quite a panic if Hinata left his shoe bag behind all the way in Tokyo.

When Yachi checks whether there were any shoes inside the bag, Kenma spoke out again. “Is everything okay?”

“Huh?” Yachi perked up, confused by the sudden question.

Kenma shifted his eyes, a little worried to continue. “I saw what happened with your team. Did something happen between Hinata and the rest of the team members?”

“A-ah.” Yachi was a little off guard by this question but seeing how perceptive the Nekoma’s setter was, she isn’t that surprised that Kenma was able to figure out that something definitely happened in Karasuno team.

Yachi smiled sheepishly, hoping that the issue doesn’t worry Kenma too much. “Everything is okay.”

Kenma doesn’t look like he was convinced as his eyebrows furrowed deeper. “Are you sure? You look a bit…worn out.”

Yachi tries to laugh it off, “Don’t worry, Kozume-san. Everything is okay.”

“I see.” He added again, “If…if you have any concerns, you can talk to me if you’d like.”

“O-oh.” Yachi blinked at the offer, “Thank you for the kind offer, Kozume-san.”

“You can call me Kenma. Kozume feels a little stiff.” He replied, slightly rubbing his hand behind his neck when he felt the flush heating up his neck.

“Yes, Kozu – Kenma-san.” Yachi nodded.

“That’s more like it.” Kenma smiled, feeling the satisfaction from Yachi calling his name properly.

Yachi felt herself getting flustered a little bit, seeing the smile on Kenma’s face was a bit surprising since he rarely shows any other type of expressions around people. Maybe since she doesn’t know him that well but that smile was really nice on him.

Yachi couldn’t help but smiled back at him in return despite feeling like she’s melting inside.

-

Before they board on their bus, Yachi finds herself saying farewells to her new friends. It might be just a week but she couldn’t believe that in the previous days, she made incredible friends with so many great people in Tokyo.

“I’m so going to miss you, Yacchan!” Eri says as she hugs her close and snuggled to Yachi’s small body.

Yachi smiles with a light chuckle as she hugs the older girl back. “I’ll see you in the upcoming training camp, Eri-san.”

This time Kaori and Yukie wanted to hug Yachi as well as each took their turns. With Kaori being the last one, she hugs Yachi a little longer as she sighs to Yachi’s hair. “I will never forget this softness.”

“Right? It’s like holding a baby bird.” Yukie added.

“A fluffy baby bird.” Eri commented as well.

Kiyoko who was watching them laughs at their expressions. “Thank you so much for helping us. We will never forget your kindness.”

“It’s no problem! I’m so glad that we have you two to join our training camps now. We need more helping hands during these troubling times.” Kaori replied.

“Your presences helped us the most this week. We couldn’t be more grateful.” Yukie said.

Kiyoko was relieved to hear that they were both helpful during this training camp. “That’s a relief.”

“Girls! We’re going now!” Takeda-sensei called them over as the bus engine started.

Kiyoko turned to Yachi, “That’s our cue.” Turning to the managers one more time, she bid her goodbye, “Thank you everyone for your generosity. Until next time!”

“Until next time, everyone!” Yachi added.

The managers of Karasuno boarded the bus and took their seats. Yachi turns to the windows and waved to the people outside of the bus. She sees some familiar faces of the captains and their members, waving enthusiastically at them.

“See you later, everyone!” Yachi mouthed at them.

She sees Bokuto energetically waving his arms at her, while Kuroo waves with his right hand and made a phone gesture while mouthing at her, _“Don’t forget to contact me, Yacchan.”_

Yachi lightly laughs at his words and merely nodded at him. Hopefully that will reassure him enough. Once the bus started to move, Yachi finally sat on her seat properly and let out a big sigh.

‘What a long week. Hopefully everything will continue on smoothly from now on.’

-

Yachi woke up to a gentle pat on her shoulder.

“Yachi-chan, we’re already here.”

Yachi slightly blinked her blurry eyes open and saw two faces from her vision. First she sees the gentle yet worried looking face of Kiyoko peering down on her. The one next to her was Tanaka who was also wearing the same concerned expression.

“Hn? Shimizu-senpai? Tanaka-senpai?” Yachi called out, her voice sounded a little rough and weak.

Kiyoko then placed her palm on Yachi’s forehead, “Hn…you’re a bit warm. Are you feeling unwell, Yachi-chan?”

Yachi wasn’t awake fully but after coming back to reality and slowly felt herself waking up, she was suddenly greeted with a light headache and an itchy throat.

“Um..I just feel a bit tired.“ Yachi spoke honestly. She wasn’t lying if she were to say that her body felt extremely heavy because of tiredness but she didn’t want to be a trouble to her upperclassmen.

“Yachi-chan, you should take it easy.” Tanaka spoke worriedly, “You look a little pale.”

“Do you feel nauseous? Headache?” Shimizu asked again gently.

Yachi shook her head, “No. I just feel tired. Don’t worry about me, senpai.”

“Don’t push yourself, Yacchan. If you feel like you’re about to drop any moment, please let us know.” Tanaka added.

“Hn. I’ll keep that in mind, senpai.” Yachi reassured him.

Afterwards, the whole team took their belongings and gathered outside of the bus. Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai spoke a few announcements before they were all dismissed and went back to their homes.

Kiyoko and Yachi had to drop of some things at the club room so Yachi took some of the equipment and left it there. Kiyoko told Yachi to head home first and leave the rest of the organizing to her. So Yachi followed her senpai’s orders and left the club room to get back home.

It was during this walk at night she felt a little uneasy. Since she had already changed back from her jersey to her uniform, she felt a little cold since she wasn’t wearing her jacket. Yachi shivered when a wind passes by.

“I hope I’m not getting sick.” Yachi whispered to herself as she rubs her arms together in hopes to keep her body warm.

However, she sees the bright and opened gymnasium when she was walking towards the gates. Yachi was confused at who would be still practicing by this time of hour. Worrying that it might be the members of her club, Yachi went there to take a peek at who was using the gym.

When she looked inside, she sees Hinata and Kageyama preparing the net and the balls together.

“Huh? Aren’t you two going home?” She asked.

“Yachi-san, if you don’t mind, could you throw some balls for us?” Hinata asked lightly at his request.

Yachi felt troubled by his request, “Huh? Can I do that?” She was genuinely asking because she doesn’t have any skills prior to volleyball.

However, Hinata explained to her, “You just have to throw the ball above Kageyama’s head.”

‘If this can only take a while then I don’t mind helping them a little bit.’

“Okay. I’ll give it a try.” Yachi says as she stepped inside the gym.

-

It didn’t go well.

No matter how many times Kageyama tossed to Hinata, it wasn’t hit properly. Since Hinata kept his eyes open, there was no spike to hit at all. Like he kept getting distracted by the ball so the toss would be meaningless in the end.

Yachi felt uncomfortable every time the toss wasn’t hit properly and how Kageyama’s expression shifted into irritation whenever Hinata asked for another toss.

“One more time!”

Kageyama was left out breathless and then he frowned towards Hinata. “Instead of practicing an attack we’re not sure you’ll be able to do, you should be working on the attacks we’ve been using as well as serving and blocking!”

“But if this quick doesn’t work, there’s no point in me being on the court.” Hinata replied back quickly.

Kageyama who seemed to be fed up by Hinata’s stubbornness, quickly yelled. “And I told you, your will isn’t needed for that quick! I’ll give you tosses that won’t be stopped by blocks - ”

“But then I’ll never get better!” Hinata yelled louder.

Yachi felt the sting in the air as if the atmosphere had turned cold. She understood that Hinata was struggling to improve his fast quicks and he acknowledged the fact that he had to improve his spike with his eyes open but Kageyama was having trouble in working this out because it was too difficult.

Hinata was desperate at this moment.

Kageyama tries to calm himself and continued with an agitated tone, “The prelims for the spring tournament start next month. They’re right around the corner. What do you think will be an effective weapon for us?”

He then walks closer to Hinata and suddenly grabbed his collar. “A complete quick or an absolute useless quick?! Huh?!””

Yachi instinctively call out at this sight of aggression. “L-let’s not fight. You have to c-calm down, Kageyama-kun. Hinata too – “

Instead of stopping this altogether, Hinata grabs Kageyama’s hand roughly and tries to pull the grip away from his collar. “I want to be strong enough to compete by myself!”

Kageyama had enough of Hinata’s words and snapped, “Your selfishness is going to throw off the team’s balance!” He shakes Hinata roughly before throwing him off to the ground.

The sound was so loud that Yachi almost screamed. There was nothing but fear and nervousness bubbling up inside Yachi now as she sees the fire before her.

“Stop…L-let’s stop now – “ Yachi tries to intervene but Kageyama cuts her off and looked down to Hinata who was on the ground, with a seething expression on his face.

“I’ll toss to anyone who is essential to winning and I don’t feel any different now.” Kageyama declared before he turned away to leave the gym.

The hateful words were thrown to Hinata so easily that it made Yachi flinched at the fact that the insult sink deeply to Hinata’s feelings.

But Yachi didn't know what to do.

Hinata cursed, getting up from the floor and screamed. “Kageyama!” Then latched on Kageyama stubbornly as he screamed towards the setter, “I won’t let you leave until you give me a toss!”

“Damn it, let go!” Kageyama hit Hinata’s head and tries to push him away. Kageyama then grabbed Hinata’s shoulder and swung him around before dropping him off to the floor with a loud thud that Yachi flinched again.

They’re fighting with all their might now.

“Stop it! Both of you stop it!” Yachi screamed with fear from her throat. The boys weren’t listening to her and were practically fighting as they throw punches to each other.

When Kageyama was about to land a punch to Hinata’s face, Yachi quickly tries to pull his arm from Hinata. “Stop fighting! Both of you, please just stop fighting right now – ah!”

Kageyama pushed Yachi away from him and then throws a pack of punches to Hinata’s head as Hinata stubbornly latch on to Kageyama and screamed at him. Yachi was pushed to the ground with a painful fall to the floor and felt the sting on her skin when she felt her knees scratched against the floor.

But she has to stop this fight or else Hinata and Kageyama might end up killing each other!

There was no other choice. With the last thing on her mind, Yachi hurriedly went outside of the gym and called for someone who is near the gym.

Upon seeing Tanaka and Sugawara walking together from the distance, Yachi called their names and hurried towards them, grabbing Tanaka’s sleeves and spoke of what happened.

“Please help, senpai! Hinata and Kageyama are fighting in the gym right now!”

“W-what?” Sugawara was shocked.

“They’re going to kill each other!” Yachi said desperately.

Tanaka and Sugawara didn’t waste their time and ran towards the gym. Upon seeing the two boys fight, Sugawara and Tanaka tries to separate the boys but Kageyama and Hinata kept trying to hit each other.

When Kageyama tries to throw another punch to Hinata, Yachi finally pushed herself between them and crouched into a ball on the floor and screamed with all her might. “STOP!”

Kageyama stopped his tracks abruptly and finally took steps back. Upon seeing Yachi crouching on the floor like that, he was so pissed off that he didn’t want to continue anymore.

Kageyama then walked out of the gym with hasty steps before yelling to the air with anger, “Gah!” then leaving the premises quickly.

Sugawara watched the scene ghastly before he runs after Kageyama to talk to him. Tanaka instantly went to Hinata and pulled him off the ground.

“Let’s clean the area and go back home. Straight back home, you hear me?” Tanaka spoke sternly to Hinata.

Yachi gently looked up from her position, not realizing there were tears flowing down from her eyes. She gulps down her cries and quickly picked up all the balls from the floor. Hinata nodded to Tanaka obediently before silently cleaning up the area as well.

After they left the gym, Tanaka asked whether Yachi needed to be accompanied on her way back home when Hinata spoke out that he’ll accompany her to the bus station.

“Okay. You two head back safely. Don’t do anything reckless after this and just…rest up for the night. Message me if you need anything.” Tanaka said.

“Yes, senpai.” Both Hinata and Yachi replied before watching Tanaka senpai leaving them.

-

After seeing Tanaka leaving, Yachi turns to Hinata. “L-let’s get your bicycle, Hinata.”

  
Hinata nodded, “Hn – oh. Yachi-san. Your knees are bleeding.”

When Yachi hears this, she blinked her eyes a few times before she looked down to her knees and gasped.

Her knees were definitely bleeding. It must have happened earlier after Kageyama pushed her. Surprisingly she didn’t feel any pain until now.

“I’ll go get the first aid kit.” Hinata said quickly before he runs to take the box from the gym and hurried back. Since they were still on the stairs before the gym doors, Hinata tells Yachi to sit down.

“I’ll treat it so you can sit down.” Hinata says as he kneels down on one knee in front of Yachi.

“N-no, it’s o-okay. I can do it myself.” Yachi says.

Hinata looked up from his position and reached out to grab Yachi’s hand. With his large brown eyes staring directly to Yachi’s eyes – he spoke again, “Please, Yachi-san.” He spoke softly.

Caught off guard by the gesture, Yachi nodded with a flustered face as she lowers herself and sits down on top of the stairs while Hinata kneels on the steps below her while he took out the antibiotic, cotton and bandages.

There were no words spoken between them as Hinata cleans off Yachi’s wounds. Though it stings a little, Yachi kept her voice from leaking out and wait patiently as Hinata treated her.

“Does it hurt?” He asked.

Yachi shook her head, “No.”

Hinata frowns as he finished applying antibiotic ointment on her and proceed to peel off the bandages before applying it on to her scratched knees. Hinata was so gentle that Yachi felt flustered by this gesture.

Yachi tries to suppress the wild heartbeats in her chest. She knew that he was trying to help her but this gesture of gentleman Hinata is different from the usual upbeat Hinata.

She couldn’t help but watch in admiration of the calm Hinata with his face full of seriousness and concentration as he treats her wounds. The way he gently touches her skin without her feeling disgusted by the touch, was charming in a certain way. It seemed like he was used to treating wounds like this to another person.

When Hinata accidentally pressed on too hard on her skin, Yachi unintentionally let out a yelp from her lips.

Hinata’s eyes widened and he looked up to Yachi in concern. “Sorry! Did that hurt a lot?”

“It’s okay…th-thank you, Hinata-kun.”

Hinata nodded before placing the last bandages on her right knee. “I’m sorry.” He apologized as he lowered his head in guilt.

“It’s not your doing.” Yachi replied at the regretful Hinata.

“No…You tried to stop our stupid fight and got hurt instead.”

Yachi sighed and shook her head. There was nothing else they could do about the situation from earlier. Yachi then noticed a slight cut on Hinata’s cheek.

“Hold still, Hinata-kun.”

“Hn?” He looked up and widened his eyes when Yachi leaned her face closer to his.

He felt his heart stopped momentarily when Yachi gently pressed a bandage onto Hinata’s cheek. Even though she wasn’t doing anything weird, the distance between her face and his was a little too close.

Yachi’s soft fingertips lightly touches upon his cheek when she placed the bandage before she pulled back. “There you go. Sorry for that, there was a cut on your skin.”

“O-oh. R-right…thank you, Yachi-san.”

Yachi nodded before giving a soft smile.

Even during the night time, Yachi’s eyes still twinkle beautifully. “Let’s go get your bicycle now.” She stated.

“Hn.” Hinata responded wordlessly.

Yachi proceed to clean up the first aid kit and return it back to the gym, leaving a flushed Hinata behind as he touched his bandaged cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This was by far the longest chapter for this fanfic haha. The Karasuno finally went back home yay. Also, it was painful to look back at the scenes and watch Kageyama and Hinata fight so brutal like this haha. I even had to take some references from the live stage because the raw emotions were pouring out there and it's just so...painful to watch. 
> 
> Anyways, speaking of them fighting - I feel so bad for Yachi here. I hope I have enough strength to write the next chapters haha because there are some anticipating characters that most of you are looking forward to hehe. 
> 
> Sorry for the mistakes you see in this chapter. Was rushing this chapter for some reason but I hope this chapter will do for this week.
> 
> I know most of you already replied to who you want Yachi to meet the most but (as a reference for the next chapters lol) I'm curious about who you all want Yachi to end up with and how their relationship turn out. I like reading your thoughts and opinions and headcanons hehehe :3
> 
> That's all for this week, I'll see you in the next chapter! Stay safe everyone!


	26. Chapter 26

Hinata and Yachi didn’t talk much during their walk on the way back home. After they were near the bus stop, Yachi finally spoke. “I-I’m just going to the bus stop over there, so I’m fine here. Thank you.”

Hinata looked back with a tired smile, “I’m sorry, Yachi-san.”

“N-no worries!” Yachi waves her hands. “It’s fine…I’m okay.”

Yachi looked to Hinata worriedly. ‘But you don’t look like you’re okay.’

Hinata suddenly spoke after a few seconds of silence. “In my first and final tournament in junior high school, we were destroyed by Kageyama. I vowed to get revenge on him in high school and of course I ran right into him.”

Yachi perked up at his words. This was the first time Hinata spoke about Kageyama ever since the fight from earlier.

“He was even worse than I could have imaged and we went through a lot, but once we started playing our matches…I felt like we understood each other. It wasn’t that he was the first friend I’d made…he was my partner.” Hinata confessed.

Yachi’s eyes started to tear up when she hears of this confession. What Hinata was going through must be so hard on him. To have you first ever trusted person to breaks off any sort of trust with you was excruciating. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like for him.

“Hinata-kun…”

Hinata got on to his bike and bid his farewell. “See you later, Yachi-san.”

The words were stuck in her throat and before she could say anything, Yachi watches Hinata pedaled his bicycle and left her. She was sure that she wasn’t imagining it because he sounded like he was about to cry.

The heavy feeling didn’t leave her chest. Yachi sniffs from her tears and wipes it away from her cheeks.

There was nothing else she could do right now.

-

There was nothing but numbness when she went back home. It was a bit unreal that she just witnessed a fight between Hinata and Kageyama earlier. It was bitterly painful for some reason. The whole time she wasn’t able to do anything for them and just watch from the sidelines.

Yachi let out a long breath as she locked the door behind her and took off her shoes. Her eyes darted to the _butsudan_ in the dark, seeing the picture of her father smiling brightly inside the frame, something inside Yachi stings of distress.

She walks towards the _butsudan_ and places her hands together, sending her thoughts to her father. For a moment she merely looks at her father’s picture in silence. The sound of the soft ticks of the clock from the living room echoes throughout the hallway and even so, the sound didn’t interrupt Yachi’s mind as she felt restless as she whispered to her father.

“I’m sorry for troubling you again, dad. It’s…it’s so confusing…I don’t know what to do.”

Even though Yachi starts her conversation, she receives no reply in return. Of course, it was the usual conversation she has with her father ever since she was young. Yachi suddenly recalls all the moments she talked to her father in front of the _butsudan_ like this. She always come to him every time she encounters troubles.

“I know I make it sound like I only talk to you every time I face a trouble – I’m…I’m sorry that it always turns out like this. But dad…what would you do if you were me? What should I do when my friends fight and I…”

Yachi clamps her mouth as she felt the stinging sensation of her eyes starting to leak with tears. She sniffed before quickly wiping her tears from the corner of her eyes with her fingers.

“I’m scared, dad. I don’t know what to do and it scares me…I feel so useless.” Yachi’s voice trembles once she felt the wave of emotions washes her entire body and the tears continued to drip down from her eyes. “Dad – I w-wish you were h-here to tell me what to do.”

Yachi small sniffles slowly turned into quite sobs. Her shoulders shakes sorrowfully as she cries before her father’s picture and at this moment she just wished for things to be easier.

-

When Yachi woke up to Saturday morning, she groggily walks to the kitchen to drink some water when she sees the sticky note from her mother on the fridge.

_I’ll be away for the whole day._

_I left you a list of errands, please do them by today if you can._

_Also, please deliver the goods to Mrs. Fujiwara. She’ll need them by this afternoon._

_I also cooked you some curry. Heat it up when you’re hungry._

_Love, Mom._

Yachi took the sticky note and placed it aside before grabbing milk and poured it into a glass. When she was about to drink her milk, she heard her phone’s notifications rang off and Yachi reached out to her phone to see who had sent her a message.

She was a little surprised to see that Daichi and Kiyoko had messaged her. She quickly opens to her texts and reads them. They were asking whether she was alright and wanted to hear her side of the story of what happened to Hinata and Kageyama last night.

With a crestfallen expression, she recalls the events of last night and messaged to the third years of what happened. After sending the messages to both of her senpai, suddenly she received a reply from Daichi who texted her –

_Yachi-san, can I call you?_

Call? Yachi was a bit uncertain about this but she thought of how Daichi would need more information so she agreed.

Once her phone rings, Yachi answered the call and meekly places the phone on her ear. “Hello, Sawamura-senpai?”

“Hello. Sorry for the abrupt call, Yachi-san. I just want to talk it out with you about what happened last night in details, if it’s okay with you.”

“No, it’s okay, senpai. W-what would you like to know?”

“You mentioned in the message previously that Hinata told Kageyama that he wanted to improve on his fast quick and that was when everything turns sour?”

“Yes, senpai. They exchanged some heated words afterwards. Ah – I’m sorry that I couldn’t do much to de-escalate the situation.”

“What? Of course, it’s okay. I guess it started on from there.” Daichi sighed heavily through his line and then asked again, “Were you okay, though? Did you get hurt?”

Yachi briefly glanced at her bandaged knees. She did get hurt but it wasn’t a big deal, “N-no, senpai. I’m okay.”

However, Daichi seems to be doubtful of her answer. “Yachi-san. It’s okay.” He spoke gently. With his voice full of comfort, he spoke again, “You can tell me honestly, I won’t be mad at you. I promise.”

Yachi’s mouth opens and closes as she tries to find the right words to tell him that she was alright but she realizes that she can’t really cover up everything from the captain. He has the right to know of what truly happened to everyone during the fight last night.

“I…I did get some scratches on my knees but it’s okay – Hinata helped me patch up and I’m doing better now.”

“Did he push you?” The chilling voice of the captain resonates in the call.

Anxiousness was bubbling through her chest, Yachi quickly tells him. “N-no, it’s actually my fault, Sawamura-senpai. I tried to stop the fight by breaking the two of them but I ended up…well – “

“You tried to push yourself between the boys to separate them?”

“Y-yes.” Yachi choked out before she felt the guilt filling her insides, “I’m – I’m sorry, senpai.”

She hears the sigh from the other line as Daichi begins, “I know your intent was to help them, Yachi-san, but it’s dangerous to get in the way of people fighting. Please don’t do it next time if that happens again, okay?”

Yachi felt ashamed of what she did. “Y-yes, senpai. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Yachi-san. I’m not mad at you. I’m worried about you.” Daichi spoke gently through the line. “I’m glad you’re doing fine now but please inform me if you have any problems. And don’t worry about Hinata and Kageyama, they’ll be okay again after sometime. They always fight so you don’t have to worry too much.”

“Yes, senpai.” Yachi replied obediently.

“Take it easy, Yachi-san. I promise that I’m not mad at you.” Daichi spoke again lightly with a soft chuckle at the end. “Just…it might be very shocking to you – everything that has happened with the team ever since you joined.”

“O-oh, it’s okay, senpai. I’m very happy to be part of the team!” Yachi replied back reassuringly.

Daichi chuckles at her response. “Thank you. It means a lot to me that you feel that way about the team.”

Yachi’s eyes widened at his words before she felt herself feeling a little embarrassed over this.

‘He was just being nice and genuine, Hitoka. Get a hold of yourself!’ She thought to herself.

Daichi voiced out, “Sorry for the time, Yachi-san. I just wanted to know how you were doing. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Please take it easy and rest up. You deserve it.”

“Y-yes, senpai.” She replied.

“Good. I’ll see you next week. Goodbye.”

“G-goodbye, senpai.”

Yachi lowers her phone and bit her lips. A mixed of emotions rummage through her chest after the call. She hoped that the captain has some ideas on how to help Hinata and Kageyama soon. She feels very uncomfortable at the thought that Hinata and Kageyama were not on speaking terms. Things like that can be very damaging to their friendship.

But it still didn’t sit well with her that she was in this…very awkward situation with the boys too. She wondered how she can face them again when she gets back to school.

In the meantime, she needs to get herself ready and do some errands before her mom gets home.

-

Yachi walks out of the post office after sending some documents her mother had told her to do in part of her list of errands. The last thing she has to do was to send the goods to Mrs. Fujiwara who was living in a couple of blocks away.

Since the place was nearby, she’ll just take her time to walk to the destination. It has been a while since she took her own to walk mindlessly through the streets and just enjoy the moment.

Yachi breathes in the air as she absorbs the good weather for the day and gaze at the peaceful surrounding. It was a very atmosphere and Yachi finds herself enjoying it.

However, as she was turning around the corner of the street – she suddenly bumped into something harshly before she felt her entire body falls sideways. Yachi felt the fear of falling on the hard concrete ground when she felt her feet slipped from the abrupt crash.

A frightened yell escaped from her lips. Fearing the pain, Yachi instinctively closes her eyes when she fell right on her sides and the bandages on her knees peeled off from the friction against the ground.

“A-ah…o-ouch…” Yachi hissed in pain when she trembled on the ground. She looked up and saw a blur of large figure from her vision. Yachi didn’t realize that she was in so much pain that her eyes started tearing up as well.

“I’m very sorry, miss. Are you okay?” She heard a low toned voice called out to her gently as they kneeled near her.

“I’m…I’m o-ouch!” When Yachi tries to find her own voice and gets up from the ground, she hissed when she sees more scratches on her skin and the redness on her arms that stings painfully when she tries to sit up from the ground.

When Yachi tries to move her legs, she also felt another searing pain when she sees the bandages on her knees were peeled off from the friction and sees the patchy skin bleeding again.

“Can you stand up, miss?”

Yachi finally blinked her tears away and looked up to the person who was kneeling near her to check on her. Yachi sees his olive colored eyes stares at her with stressful concern as his eyebrows furrowed.

The second thing that she realized about him that he was huge. He was basically hovering her despite him kneeling lowly next to her in order to reach her better. Yachi tries to gulps down the nervousness from his height as she pulls herself back up and forced herself to get on back on her feet.

“I – I’ll be f-fine – ah.” Yachi stumbles back to the ground and the boy reached out to her gently and held her arms.

“You’re injured. Please don’t force yourself.” He spoke again.

Yachi suddenly perked up and looked around, “Th-the goods! Oh no, I must have dropped it!”

The boy also began to look around the area and found the bag near them. He reached to it easily and placed it next to her. “Here. I’m sorry for crashing into you. But we have to treat your injuries quickly.”

“Th-thank you b-but…could you give me a moment. I’ll stand up back again in a bit –“

“Hey, Wakatoshi-kun! Oh – are you okay?”

“Tendou, don’t start crowding them like that. Hey, are you both alright?”

Yachi looked up to see two newcomers coming towards them. She also sees their large figures towering over her and by now Yachi just became super nervous over these sudden giants coming towards her.

“I accidentally crashed her during my running. She seems to be injured.” The boy who had crashed into her explained.

The messy ash blonde hair boy with dark tips suddenly kneeled near her and frowns when he sees Yachi’s bleeding knees. “This doesn’t look so good. We should treat her on the side of the street – what is your name, miss?”

“Y-Yachi Hitoka.” She replied timidly.

“Yachi-san, I’m so sorry but we have to move you to the side. Can you stand up?” The ash blonde haired boy asked.

“I c-can.” Yachi tries to push herself off from the ground but hissed when her wounds sting painfully again.

The boy with the olive eyes suddenly placed one of his arm on her back and another one below her legs and before she could react quickly, Yachi yelped when she felt her entire body being lifted off from the ground and finds herself in a princess carry.

“I’ll help you. Don’t worry.” The boy says as he carried her to the side of the street where the boys managed to find a bench nearby.

Yachi felt her cheeks flushing but she finds herself curling herself up because she was extremely embarrassed by this situation. Her heart was beating rapidly inside her chest and she felt her entire body froze from the sudden lightness.

She holds both of her hands closely to her chest and bit her lips to drive her attention away from the pain as the boy slowly lowered down and placed her on the bench gently.

“Tendou, was there a convenient store nearby?” The messy ash blonde haired boy spoke towards the spiky red haired boy.

“I saw one nearby – I’ll go buy some bandages and disinfectants. Be right back!” The red haired boy spoke quickly before he began to run.

Yachi suddenly felt really bad for burdening these strangers for helping her out. She was also the one at fault for not paying attention when she walked earlier.

“I’m very sorry for the trouble.” She spoke as she lowered her head in apology.

“Please, don’t mind, Yachi-san. It was also my fault for bumping into you.” The boy with the olive colored eyes spoke.

“It’s o-okay. Please don’t mind about it too much, um…” Yachi trailed off as she realized that she didn't know how to address the boy.

“Ushijima Wakatoshi.” He replied, introducing himself.

Yachi froze when she heard of that name. Her eyes slowly widened at the realization that she just bumped into the Ace of Shiratorizawa’s volleyball team.

“Y-you’re Ushijima-san…ace of Shiratorizawa?” Yachi asked in an amazed voice.

Ushijima blinked a few times at her reaction before he nods. “Yes.”

Yachi wondered in that matter of seconds how she didn’t end up fainting at that exact moment.

She just crashed horribly into the ace of Shiratorizawa during his run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY VALENTINES!!
> 
> I don't have a valentine this year but I got to eat chocolate cake which is good enough haha. Here is another updated chapter featuring a worried captain haha. Also this time the Shiratorizawa boys debuts in my story - some of you were waiting for the boys to appear. Only Ushiwaka, Semi-Semi and Tendou debuts first...just because lol. 
> 
> This chapter was a bit sad for me to write because I had to envision the fact that Yachi lost her dad and she couldn't talk properly with him and it just made me --- sad. However, Yachi met some Shiratorizawa boys haha finally. 
> 
> Thank you for all the sweet comments and reviews from the previous chapters! I'm very sorry that I can't reply to them all but I'm so very grateful for all of your comments and reviews, seriously! 
> 
> I'd also like to announce that I might be in a hiatus soon because I have midterm tests coming up soon and I need to study for it :((( but I promise I'll bounce back to update on this story once I'm done with my tests. 
> 
> That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this chapter! Once again, Happy Valentines and stay safe everyone!! :3


	27. Chapter 27

Yachi was gaping at the fact that she just bumped into Ushijima Wakatoshi. The alarms were ringing loudly in her brain and she was still in shock despite the stinging pain from her injuries.

The other boy merely gave a light smile. “Oh? Did the legendary tales of Ushijima spread throughout Miyagi now?”

Ushijima turns to give an annoyed stare towards the boy.

“Relax, Wakatoshi. My name is Semi Eita, nice to meet you, Yachi-san.” The ashen blonde haired boy who introduces himself as Semi nodded lightly at her.

“O-oh. N-nice to meet you both. Ushijima-san. Semi-san. I apologize once again for the trouble.” Yachi replied.

Semi shook his head, “Nonsense. This was all an accident so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Their red haired friend came back with a bag of first aid kit supplies. “I’m here!”

“Thank you very much – um – “ Yachi thanked the spiky red haired boy.

He smiles in return, “My name is Tendou Satori. Just call me, Tendou.”

Yachi nodded in return, “Tendou-san, then. Sorry for the trouble.”

“No problem!” He replied brightly.

Semi then began to kneels before Yachi and took out some disinfectant wipes to clean off her wounds and began treating Yachi properly. “Excuse me, Yachi-san.” He spoke before gently cleaning her wounds.

Yachi nodded as she watched with concentration to not feel the stinging pain as the boy cleaned off her wounds and dabbed some disinfectant on her wounds.

“Does it hurt?” Ushijima asked, suddenly kneeling next to Semi and looked up to her in concern again.

Yachi shook her head with a trembling smile. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”

Yachi kept biting her bottom lip as she watches Semi dabbing the disinfectant on her knees. Yachi was grateful when Semi ended, her knees were bandaged properly again and she was able to stand up.

“Thank you for helping me out and I’m sorry for the trouble again. Um, I’ll change the money for the medicine.” Yachi began to rummage to her pocket to reach out for her wallet when Tendou stopped her.

“It’s okay, Yachi-san. You don’t need to change the money. As long as you can get better soon, that is already enough.” He said kindly.

Yachi blinked in surprise, “B-but I have to repay you.” She voiced.

Tendou laughed, “Don’t worry about it, Yachi-san. Relax! It’s not that much.”

Yachi furrowed her eyebrows, “Um…can I repay you in some way? Perhaps - ”

“Phone number.”

Yachi was caught off guard when Ushijima suddenly replied to her. She watches as he took out his phone from his pocket and showed it to her. “You can give me your phone number.”

“E-eh? O-okay then…” Yachi was so stunned that she just stiffly took his phone and pressed her numbers timidly in his phone and saved it as her name before giving it back to him.

Ushijima spent no time to waste and called her phone number at that moment, making Yachi’s phone ring as she took it out to see his unsaved phone number calling her phone.

“Now you can save my number too.” He spoke.

“R-right.” Yachi replied stiffly and saved Ushijima’s phone number. Still perplexed by this whole thing, Yachi looked up to Ushijima in anxiousness. “I still don’t understand how my phone number can repay the change – will you be contacting me about this in the future?”

“Yes. I will contact you, Yachi-san.” Ushijima replied simply. Yachi blinked a few times when she sees the edges of his lips turned up a little.

‘Was I mistaken or did he…tried to smile a little bit?’ Yachi wondered in her mind.

Yachi still doesn’t really understand how this is equivalent to the money that Tendou bought for the medicine to treat her but the expressions on Tendou’s and Semi’s faces while they looked at Ushijima was questionable. So Yachi decided not to press for more questions.

“Will you be okay after this, Yachi-san?” Semi broke the awkward ice and turned to Yachi with a polite smile.

“Yes. I’ll be fine on my own now.” Yachi spoke.

“That’s a relief. Well, we must take our leave now. We apologize for what happened.” Semi said courteously with a sheepish smile.

“I apologize for bumping to you, Yachi-san.” Ushijima says as he took another bow of apology.

“A-ah, it’s fine.” Yachi couldn’t help but bow for apology in return, “I’m grateful for your help. I’ll repay your kindness as soon as possible.”

“Well, then! Hope to see you again, Yachi-san! Bye-bye!” Tendou says before the rest of the boys took their time to bid their farewell to Yachi and turned around to start running again.

Yachi watches them as they run to the distance. She caught Semi looking back once before waving at her as she awkwardly waved back in return.

‘Okay, let’s deliver the goods to Mrs. Fujiwara and go back home to rest.’ Yachi then turned around to walk to the other side of the street.

She missed the moment when Ushijima turns his head around to watch her as she begins to walk in the opposite direction. 

-

Throughout their running, none of the three boys talked about the previous event as they jog on their own paces. The air seemed a little odd for the conversation to start about the girl Ushijima just asked her number for.

It was very out of his character that he acted that way.

Tendou then glanced a few times towards Ushijima’s face whose eyes seemed to be wandering to somewhere else.

“Huh? What’s with that look, Wakatoshi-kun?” Tendou asked briefly as they were running.

A few seconds passed before Ushijima spoke out. “She has the same name as the editor from the Little Giant posters.”

-

Yachi was so very much in shock when she came to school on Monday. As soon as she stepped into the school grounds after passing the school’s entrance, a familiar tall figure suddenly appeared right before her.

“Yachi-san!”

“Gwah!” Yachi choked in shock as she jumps on the spot with fright.

She held her chest as she tries to calm her thundering heartbeat and looked up to see who just called her out of the blue like that. Recognizing his jet black hair and grumpy face, Yachi blinks at the person in front of her.

“K-Kageyama-kun?”

Kageyama suddenly felt uneasy and kept playing with the strap of his bag, “G-good morning, Yachi-san.”

Yachi was finally able to calm down and greeted him back, “Good morning, Kageyama-kun. What’s wrong?”

Even though the air was a little awkward since the last time they saw each other was during the fight – Yachi thinks that Kageyama might ask her anything relating to volleyball club.

Kageyama took his moment to answer, “I…I wanted to apologize for what happened last time. Sugawara-senpai told me you got hurt.” Kageyama then shifted his eyes to Yachi’s knees which were still bandaged.

Yachi also followed his line of gaze before she looked up and waved her hand in dismissal. “It’s okay, Kageyama-kun! More importantly…are you doing okay?”

“I’m fine. I just…I’m very sorry that you got hurt because of me. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Kageyama bit his lips and closed his eyes for a few seconds as he breathes through his nose then suddenly his upper body lowered down to bow 90 degrees towards her.

“I’M VERY SORRY!” He apologized loudly.

By now Yachi was extremely flustered by his apology. Even though it was genuine, she was embarrassed that there were people watching them as they walked passed by them from the school’s entrance.

“It’s fine, Kageyama-kun! Please raise your head. I’ve already accepted your apology so – “

Kageyama them stood straight up again and replied, “My older sister said that it’s best to apologize honestly from the heart every time I did something wrong.”

“Your older sister?” Yachi replied numbly.

He nodded, “She said that _‘to be a man, I should be able to apologize to girls honestly so I don’t hurt their feelings.’_ ”

Yachi couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at such innocent expression on Kageyama’s face as he recites his sister’s advice. This was the first time she had ever seen him with an obedient expression to someone else other than the senpai from the club.

“That’s…that's a good advice to live by. But thank you, Kageyama-kun. I accept your apology.” Yachi replies genuinely.

Kageyama’s face suddenly beamed brighter than before. Biting his lips as he tries to keep the smile blooming from his face. Although he tries to hide his quirked lips with the back of his hand, Yachi was quick enough to notice his expression.

‘Ah…Kageyama-kun sure looks nice with a smile like that.’ Yachi couldn’t help but smile as well as she felt healed by his handsome expression.

Yachi then asks, “Let’s head to class now. We shouldn’t be late for morning assembly.”

“Y-yeah.”

Kageyama made sure to walk Yachi to her class while they talk about miscellaneous things about school work and club practice. Unknown to Yachi, Kageyama couldn’t help but still feel guilty at the bandaged knees on Yachi.

He has to make up to her with something better later.

‘Maybe nee-chan can help me with this too.’ Kageyama thought as he watched Yachi talking to him with a bright expression on her face.

He couldn’t help but think how lovely she looks.

-

“Yacchan, you should eat more! Look at you, you got so thin after joining the volleyball club – we can’t have you like this. Here, take my rolled eggs.”

“Mikoto-chan, thank you but you should eat your lunch as well.” Yachi replies as the other girl puts a roll of eggs on to Yachi’s lunchbox.

“And have you starve? No way. Eat more, Yacchan.” Mikoto says as she puts another meatball into Yachi’s bento.

Yachi smiles sheepishly as her seatmate gave her bits of her food to Yachi. Ever since she saw Yachi with her knees bandaged in the morning, the black haired girl had been fussing over Yachi.

“Cut it out, Mikoto. Yacchan is going to blow up from all the food you gave her.” On the other side of Yachi’s desk, a brown haired girl with her hair neatly braided in two tails, commented as she watches the spectacle in front of her.

“But she is so skinny now. She needs all the energy for her club. Being a manager is time consuming and draining so Yachi should get all the energy she can.” Mikoto replied easily.

“Seriously…”

“It’s okay, Hiyori-san. I’m very grateful that you’re both looking out for me.” Yachi piped up.

Hiyori shrugged her shoulders as she took a bite of her rice from her lunch box. “That goes without saying.”

Currently, the three girls were eating together in lunch time. Yachi had gotten along with Mikoto and Hiyori ever since they worked together during a group project so she was now more comfortable in hanging out with her classmates without being awkward or uneasy.

It was also during this time when Yachi was being fussed over by Mikoto who has been quite concerned towards Yachi who joined the volleyball club as the manager.

“Would you like more eggs, Yacchan?” Mikoto asked.

Yachi shook her head and held on to her chopsticks. “Thank you, Mikoto-chan, but my current lunch is enough. Please enjoy your food.”

“You can give those to me.” Hiyori asked as she slid her lunch box to Mikoto’s.

The black haired girl’s eyes narrowed with a glare. “Not you – you eat like dinosaur!”

Hiyori frowned, “You can give your food to Yacchan but not to me?”

“Of course! Yacchan needs to fill her baby cheeks again so she needs to eat more.” Mikoto replied as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What are you, her mother?” Hiyori furrowed her eyebrows and kept pushing her lunch box. “Just one rolled egg.”

“No! You have two lunchboxes already, why are you such a greedy child?!”

“Well I’m a big girl so I need more food. Come on, Micchan – let’s not be stingy.”

“Who are you calling Micchan now?!”

Yachi smiles as she watches her friends argue back and forth about food. Sometimes she feels like she was spending time with people who are similar to her volleyball club teammates. Even though Mikoto and Hiyori were friends, they couldn’t help but bicker and fight every time they spend time together

But at the same time they don’t really stop spending time with each other.

‘They are very similar to Hinata and Kageyama-kun in a way.’ Yachi’s mind flew somewhere else as she finished her food.

As her friends kept bickering in front of her, Yachi felt the phone in her pocket vibrated. Wondering who would contact her at this time of the day, Yachi quickly took a peek to her phone to see who just texted her.

Her eyes widened when she sees the name of the sender.

_Kuroo Tetsurou just sent you a text message_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Midterms is done yay!! The tests were so hard :( Even though I studied, it was still not enough. Hopefully I can get my scores back soon because I'm very anxious for my results haha. But in the meantime, I want to go back writing again haha. 
> 
> This time is another bridging chapter. I kept rewriting the future chapters about how Yachi and the other volleyball team members can resolve the Hinata-Kageyama conflict. I just realized how difficult it is to writing scenes about conflicts - relationship between humans are very sensitive so I'm trying to explore how the dynamic works between the characters in Haikyuu and how Yachi fits in to it. (and this is why my plot notes for this fic is such a mess lmao).
> 
> Did you all know that Ushijima keeps a really CLOSE eye on ads? The scene from the anime when Ushijima reading the ads from Jump made me laugh so hard, he's such a weird boy haha but that what makes him funny. 
> 
> And also another surprised at the end. I was actually hesitating on who should contact Yachi first through phone - aaaah I'm so excited for this part but I'll have to reserve it for the next chapter hehe. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading this chapter! I'll see you all in the next chapter :))) Please stay healthy and be careful :3


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